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paranormal research

Oakwood Cemetery Saints & Sinners Tour

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[ For my FREE book about cemetery symbols, click here. The following article is an adapted excerpt from my travel guide to haunted places called, Paranormal Texas. Full disclosure: it’s an Amazon affiliate link. If you buy stuff after clicking it, I make a few pennies at no additional cost to you. Win/win, right?]

Oakwood Cemetery gates in Fort Worth, Texas. photo (c) Tui Snider
Oakwood Cemetery gates in Fort Worth, Texas. photo (c) Tui Snider

Oakwood Saints and Sinners Tour 

What do you get when you combine live theater regional history and a beautiful texas burial ground? Why the Oakwood Cemetery Saints and Sinners Tour, of course!

Every October the North Fort Worth Historical Society chooses interesting characters from Oakwood Cemetery’s residents to “bring to life” through well-researched performances by costumed historians.

Oakwood Cemetery in Fort Worth, Texas (photo by Tui Snider)
Oakwood Cemetery in Fort Worth, Texas (photo by Tui Snider)

2020 Consolation Prize!

Unfortunately, if you’re watching this in 2020 then I must tell you that there is no cemetery tour this year. (I’m sure you can guess why!) But that’s why I made this blog post and video. Since we can’t go this year, consider this a consolation prize!

I’ve been going to the Oakwood Cemetery Saints and Sinners Tour in Fort Worth, Texas since 2015. I’ve taken so many photos (and even a little bit of video.) I hope you enjoy this little blog post and companion video that I’ve put together. (To see the companion video, click this link or the image below: Oakwood Cemetery Saints and Sinners Tour.)

Cemeteries are Open-air Museums

I often say that historic cemeteries are open-air museums. That’s what I love about the Oakwood Cemetery Saints and Sinners Tour. It really brings history to life in a special way.

The performances are often quite funny, but some will bring tears to your eyes. I learn so much each year. I wish more historic cemeteries had tours like this.

Horse drawn hearse in Oakwood Cemetery (photo by Tui Snider)
Horse drawn hearse in Oakwood Cemetery (photo by Tui Snider)

Fort Worth is “Where the West begins”

Since Fort Worth is considered to be “Where the West begins,” these tours often give you a glimpse into Wild West history. You’ll learn about cattle barons, oilmen, gunslingers, cowboys, soldiers, suffragettes, shopkeepers, and more!

There’s even a section called Bartenders Row where Wild West saloon workers are buried. Another plot is nicknamed Soiled Doves Row. A soiled dove is a euphemism they used in the 1800s to describe what we would call a prostitute or sex worker today.

I go into more detail about the ladies in Soiled Doves Row, Bartenders Row, and other historic people in Oakwood Cemetery in my new book, 6 Feet Under Texas.

Me playing Faro! (photo by Larry Snider)
Me playing Faro! (photo by Larry Snider)

Faro versus Poker in the Wild West

One year I learned how to play Faro. I’d never even heard of it before! Faro is the card game you see people playing in Wild West movies. I always thought it was poker, but Faro was a very popular card game for gamblers.

And get a load of those guys’ mustaches! That’s a major commitment to history, am I right?

There's a trap door in the chapel floor - for raising & lowering coffins! (photo by Tui Snider)
There’s a trap door in the chapel floor – for raising & lowering coffins! (photo by Tui Snider)

Unique casket “elevator”

Whether you go before or after your tour, make sure you visit Oakwood’s Chapel. Not only will you see some really gorgeous stained glass windows. but they have a rectangular door in the floor up by the altar that has a rather unique function.

In the old days, caskets were stored in the basement where temperatures were naturally much cooler. When it was time for the memorial service, they would raise the casket up through this rectangular door in the floor. Clever, eh?

I wasn't the only one wiping my eyes after this WWII vet shared his story! (photo by Tui Snider)
I wasn’t the only one wiping my eyes after this WWII vet shared his story! (photo by Tui Snider)

Drop by my table and say hi!

I know it can be crowded, but when you come to the Saints and Sinners Tour you better stop by my table and say hi. Not in 2020, of course, but in the future.

I am a member of the North Fort Worth Historical Society and you can usually find me sitting with my husband, Larry, in the shade selling books and enjoying a really fun day at Oakwood Cemetery.

Oakwood Cemetery in Fort Worth, Texas (photo by Tui Snider)
Oakwood Cemetery in Fort Worth, Texas (photo by Tui Snider)

Is Oakwood the “John Smith” of cemetery names?

You’ve probably heard that John Smith is the most common name in America, right?

Well, I sometimes joke that Oakwood is the “John Smith” of cemetery names because it seems like every big city has at least one burial ground named Oakwood Cemetery.

How about you? Is there an Oakwood Cemetery near you? Let me know in the comments below.

Are historic cemeteries your happy place?

If, like me, historic cemeteries are your happy place, drop by my new store, GraveHour Gifts.

Plan your trip to Oakwood Cemetery’s Saints and Sinners Tour

To visit Oakwood Cemetery: You can visit Fort Worth’s Oakwood Cemetery year-round. The address is 701 Grand Ave, Fort Worth, TX 76164

Saints and Sinners Facebook page: To find about upcoming historic cemetery tours in Oakwood, visit their Facebook page. 

Tui Snider’s YouTube: I feature Oakwood Cemetery in several of my YouTube videos, so you may wish to check those out before your visit. Here’s the link: Exploring Historic Cemeteries.

To learn the spooky-but-true history behind a whole bunch of haunted places in North Texas (including Oakwood Cemetery), check out my travel guide: Paranormal Texas.

READ MY BOOKS: To see a list of all my published books, check out Tui  Snider’s Amazon page. 

Learn more about offbeat travel & historic cemeteries at my YouTube Channel

Want a FREE book? Click below:

Filed Under: #TuiSnider #Texas #author #musician, A to Z Challenge, Blog on Writing & Life, Blog Posts, Cemeteries & Symbolism, Historic Cemeteries, My Books Tagged With: #GraveHour, A to Z challenge, Granbury, haunted, haunted doll, historic, iPhone photography, paranormal, paranormal research, paranormal texas, photo essay, photographer, texas travel, travel, Tui Snider

Haunted Doll House Museum in Granbury, Texas

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[ For my FREE book about cemetery symbols, click here. The following article is an adapted excerpt from my travel guide to haunted places called, Paranormal Texas. Full disclosure: it’s an Amazon affiliate link. If you buy stuff after clicking it, I make a few pennies at no additional cost to you. Win/win, right?]

Doll House Museum, Granbury, TX
Doll House Museum, Granbury, TX [photo (c) Tui Snider]

Doll House Museum in Granbury, Texas

The Granbury Doll House Museum has over 2500 dolls from around the world.  The dolls are on display throughout a two-story historic home that, when you think about it, kinda looks like a great big dollhouse.

This unique museum was founded by Jane Sharp and Barbara Williams. Jane and Barbara are sisters, and their Doll House Museum is truly a labor of love. The top floor of the house serves as a doll hospital, and is where the women painstakingly restore these historic playthings.

Doll House Museum, Granbury, TX [photo (c) Tui Snider]
Doll House Museum, Granbury, TX [photo (c) Tui Snider]

A labor of love

A walk through the Granbury Doll House reveals everything from mass-produced Barbies and G.I. Joes to handcrafted one-of-a-kind pieces from famous doll makers.

Many of the dolls are donated by family members who no longer want them, but realize their historic significance. When there are no descendants to take these special dolls, Jane and Barbara fix them up and display them to the public.

Doll House Museum, Granbury, TX [photo (c) Tui Snider]
Doll House Museum, Granbury, TX, Vicky shows us the Dolly Rekord doll. [photo (c) Tui Snider]

Thomas Edison’s Dolly Rekord Doll

One of the most unique exhibits is a 1922 Dolly Rekord doll. It contains a wax cylinder created by Thomas Edison that allows it to “speak.” (Watch my YouTube video about the Granbury Doll House if you want to see and hear this amazing historic doll in action!)

When I asked museum volunteer, Vicky, which doll was her favorite, she immediately showed us this fascinating, and very historic, Dolly Rekord doll that you can see in the above photo.

Doll House Museum, Granbury, TX [photo (c) Tui Snider]
Doll House Museum, Granbury, TX. Selfie with Rhett and Scarlet. [photo (c) Tui Snider]

Fun for all ages

On my first visit, I had a couple men in tow. I didn’t think they would find the place interesting, but we ended up staying for nearly 2 hours! Although I did have a Raggedy Ann, a few Barbies, and a Little Women doll (Jo, the writer, of course!), I was quite a tomboy growing up. So even I wasn’t sure how fun the doll museum would be. Well, let me tell you: if you enjoy history and toys, you will love Granbury’s Doll House Museum. The women who work there are so knowledgeable.

Doll House Museum, Granbury, TX [photo (c) Tui Snider]
“Clowning” around at the Doll House Museum, Granbury, TX [photo (c) Tui Snider]

But is it a haunted doll museum?!?

As our visit drew to a close, I finally mustered up the courage to ask if the sisters ever experience paranormal activity at the museum. Some people are touchy about this, depending on their belief system, and the the last thing I wanted to do was irritate those lovely ladies!

The two merely laughed and told me the Granbury Doll House has its “share of spirits.” They went on to explain that not only do the Pirates of the Caribbean figures rearrange themselves on the shelf, but they often find some of them on the floor, as if they had been fighting.

Doll House Museum, Granbury, TX [photo (c) Tui Snider]
Doll House Museum, Granbury, TX. The top light turns on by itself! [photo (c) Tui Snider]

Who’s afraid of the dark?

Another strange occurrence involves the second floor light. Even when they are sure they have turned it off, it often turns itself back on. When I suggested that perhaps one of the dolls is afraid of the dark, the women murmured that I just may have something there!

You can also watch my video of the Granbury Doll House Museum here:

Paranormal investigation at the haunted doll museum!

A few months later, I returned after hours to attend a paranormal investigation led by Greg Steven’s group, TxRIP. A command center was erected outside by the garage, and the air-conditioning was turned off inside the house.

This made for quite a hot experience. While I didn’t enjoy the sweat dripping down my back, this lack of a/c made the sudden pockets of ice-cold air during our investigation very obvious!

Doll House Museum, Granbury, TX [photo (c) Tui Snider]
TX RIP investiaged the Doll House Museum, Granbury, TX [photo (c) Tui Snider]

The results?

None of us felt anything sinister in the doll museum, but TX RIP detected several anomalies on their videos. You can visit their Facebook page, where they share results from their investigations by clicking here.

According to fellow author and noted psychic, Teal Gray, “For me, the highest concentration of energy was located near the stairs and the rooms to each side of the kitchen,” adding that, “A mischievous boy doll on top of the refrigerator with a big smile on his face seemed delighted we were there.” Overall, according to her psychic impressions, “The spirits seem to be very happy with Barbara and Jane running the museum .”

Doll House Museum, Granbury, TX [photo (c) Tui Snider]
Doll House Museum, Granbury, TX. Psychic, Teal Gray, joined the investigation. [photo (c) Tui Snider]

Plan your trip to the Granbury Doll House Museum

If you’d like to visit the museum, you’ll need to take a trip to Granbury, Texas. The museum is open most weekends from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. but I would check their Facebook page before going. Admission is free, and if the American flag is out, the museum is open.

To learn the spooky-but-true history behind a whole bunch more haunted places in North Texas, check out my travel guide: Paranormal Texas.

Let me know if you go to the Granbury Doll House or any of the other places in my books! And be sure to tell the ladies that Tui sent you! :)

Address: 421 Bridge Street, Granbury, Tx 76048

Website: www.facebook.com/TheGranburyDollHouse

What about you?

Think you’d enjoy visiting the Granbury Doll House Museum? Or would all the dolls make you nope right out of there?

READ MY BOOKS: To see a list of all my published books, check out Tui  Snider’s Amazon page. 

Learn more about offbeat travel & historic cemeteries at my YouTube Channel

Want a FREE book? Click below:

Filed Under: #TuiSnider #Texas #author #musician, A to Z Challenge, Blog on Writing & Life, Blog Posts, Cemeteries & Symbolism, Historic Cemeteries, My Books Tagged With: #GraveHour, A to Z challenge, Granbury, haunted, haunted doll, historic, iPhone photography, paranormal, paranormal research, paranormal texas, photo essay, photographer, texas travel, travel, Tui Snider

Subscribe for a Free copy of the North Texas Paranormal Resource Guide!

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If you sign up for my newsletter, I assume you are interested in quirky, offbeat, and/or haunted travel and lore – in other words, the same wacky, weird, and overlooked stuff I share on this blog!

How often will I receive your newsletter?
Good question! My motto for the newsletter is to keep it infrequent-but-interesting. In other words, I won’t be filling your inbox with long-winded emails every day. Expect to hear from me roughly once a month.

Behind the scenes…
Plus, as a subscriber you will be the first to know when my next book comes out, when they go on sale, as well as any ghost hunting trips or other adventures I have planned!

My Gift to You: North Texas Paranormal Resource Guide
As a thank you for signing up to my newsletter, subscribers can download a copy of the North Texas Paranormal Resource  Guide, a 50-page ebook I created.

Why create a paranormal resource guide?
While researching haunted sites for Paranormal Texas, my quest for a concise list of active paranormal groups in north Texas left me empty-handed. I kept finding dead ends, abandoned websites, and ghost hunting groups that no longer existed. Plus, acronyms like NTPI, NPTRT, NPTP, and TPI made it downright confusing!

I originally planned to include the North Texas Paranormal Resource Guide as a section of the book Paranormal Texas. However, with more and more ghost hunting teams, haunted history tours, and paranormal expos springing up, it made sense to create a separate resource, one that can be updated periodically.

What’s in the guide?
The North Texas Paranormal Resource Guide is divided into two sections. Part One is an alphabetical listing of north Texas ghost hunting teams. Each listing includes the name of the group, the year it was founded, its email, and a brief excerpt from the team’s website. Part Two lists haunted history tours, and is alphabetically arranged by city.

Did I miss anything?
My goal for the North Texas Paranormal Resource Guide is to provide helpful information and save you time. While I have done my best to include every ghost hunting team and haunted history tour currently available in north Texas, I probably missed a few.

Drop me a line!
If you know of any ghost hunting groups, haunted history tours, cemetery tours, paranormal expos, meet-up, or other goodies that should be added, please send an email to TuiSnider @ gmail [dot] com with the subject “Paranormal Resource Guide,” and I will include that info in the next edition.

Great! How do I sign up & claim my FREE book?
Yay! Glad to have you along for the ride. To sign up for the newsletter, simply scroll down and enter your name and email in the form below. Thanks!

In the meantime, happy ghost hunting!
~ Tui Snider

Filed Under: Media Kit Tagged With: author, ghost hunting, newsletter, North Texas Paranormal Resource Guide, paranormal, paranormal research, paranormal texas, Quirky Travel, texas travel, Tui Snider

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