A fun and family-friendly tour around the Historic Granbury Courthouse Square, the Granbury Ghost and Legends Tour is a year-round fun event that happens every Friday and Saturyday evening! I’ve done the tour multiple times with friends and family, and it’s just a fun way to end a day while visiting this neat town on Lake Granbury!
If we learned anything from The Sixth Sense, it’s that little orbs in pictures are really ghost, which means we can derive from this picture I took that the Hood County Courthouse Square is full of them! During the tour, they just focus on some of the more famous, or fun, of the bunch!
According to the Ghost Community, the departed respond to energy in electrical devices, and can be picked up on cameras and even recordings! Have fun during your tour and take LOTS of pictures of just everything, so you can go back and look at them in the safe, bright lights of your home during the day for anything that might be off, like a smiling transparent man in a window! Take videos too, you might catch a voice you didn’t hear at first!
They offer two tours on Friday and Saturday nights, one at 7 and another at 9:15. If your bedtime at all allows it, take the 9:15 tour! Nothing scary happens at 7 when the square is full of people! During summer the sun isn’t even down yet! Of course, if you’re worried that your child might get frightened, or fall asleep, the 7 o’clock tour might be for you.
I’ve taken a ton of ghost tours, which are always full of kids, and I’ve never seen a child actually get scared. I have had to leave a ghost tour or two in search of a bathroom, so be sure everyone goes before the tour starts, and don’t forget a bottle of water, especially during the summer!
If you were hoping for me to tell you the ghost stories of Downtown Granbury, you’re out of luck. You won’t know who haunts the Granbury Opera House without taking the tour. All you will get from me are some good tips.
I believe that the more you already know of Granbury’s history, the more you’ll enjoy the tour, so go ahead and click HERE to find out about one of Granbury’s long lost residents, John St. Helen’s.
Whether you believe the folklore or not, the shop next to the Nutshell Eatery even bears his name.
If you have time before your tour, visit the Nutshell Eatery, which was a saloon in Granbury after the Civil War. There are other ghost stories here as well, but since you don’t go inside the buildings during the tour, it’s nice to have seen some of the things she is describing. You’ll want to pay attention to the mural of the Lady in Red.
Another infamous ghost is known to haunt Downtown Grapevine, but unlike St. Helen, he has yet to come forth from the grave to talk about it. It seems that Jesse James wasn’t actually murdered in Missiouri by Bob Ford in 1882, but came instead to live in Granbury and is even buried in the Granbury Cemetery. An interesting piece of evidence is that the headstone was purchased by James’s own family, although a DNA test in 2000 proved that it was not Jesse James buried there. Of course, there is always another lead in these stories. To read more about it, click HERE.
Before you think it’s too tall of a tale, Jesse and his brother Frank did hide out in Texas during their reign, and after Jesse’s death, Frank came to Texas and worked in several town as a salesman, including Dallas. Click HERE to read more about one of their campsites in Texas.
If you want to visit the cemetery before the tour, it’s located at 252 W. Bridge St. in Granbury. The headstone reads Jesse James, and is usually covered in pennies. A tour is offered each October of the cemetery. Click HERE for more information.
A complementary shuttle takes visitors around Granbury and to the hotel and Bed and Breakfast.
The beautiful homes in Granbury also have their own ghost, and you’ll learn about those sightings during the tour as well. Another tip here is to just take as many pictures as you can, you never know what you might see later!
Each December the town of Granbury has a Candlelight Homes Tour, where you can see the inside of the beautiful old homes as well. Click HERE to learn a little more about it!
With gallows located inside the building, the Hood County Jail sounds like a pretty spooky place to visit, too. Even though the gallows were never completed or used, it’s a neat place to visit if you have time before the ghost tour! It’s open Fri, Sat. and Sunday from 1pm – 4pm, and admission is $2 for adults and $1 for children.
The Nutt House Hotel, which was built by the Nutt Brothers in 1893 on the Courthouse Square is also a great place to visit before the tour. The hotel is still in operation today. The Bridge Street History Center in Granbury is the home built by David and Sudie Nutt in 1879, and is another great way to learn more about the residents and early life of Granbury! Click HERE to visit their website to check dates and times.
The Hood County Courthouse receives worldwide recognition for the Seth Thomas Hand Wound Clock in the Clock Tower, only one of two in the world and the other being Big Ben in England!
Things To Do in Granbury
Play
Granbury City Beach Park is a city park on Lake Granbury with imported sand from South Padre Island, covered cabanas, a roped off swim area and a spray park! It’s also FREE, and just a few blocks from Downtown Granbury!
The Brazos Drive In Theater is a fun, family-friendly old-school Drive In with one screen and shows new releases Friday and Saturday nights! Click HERE for more information.
Eat
We absolutely LOVE Ketzler’s Snitzel Haus and Biergarten on the Hood County Courthouse Square! Click HERE for more information.
Stay
The Granbury Hilton Garden Inn overlooks Lake Granbury, next to the City Beach Park for early morning walks in the sand. My kids love the indoor pool, which makes Granbury a winner anytime of year! Click HERE for more information.
Granbury Ghost and Legends Tour
119 E Bridge St., Granbury
Click HERE to visit their website.
Keep Having Fun in the Texas Sun!
Michelle
Having Fun in the TEXAS Sun is on PINTEREST! Use it as a quick resource to find activities in different Texas towns! Click HERE!
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