TxDOT usually spends October warning drivers about work zones. This year, the agency added something different: a Phantom Layer on its Statewide Planning map that marks haunted buildings, cryptid sightings, and other spooky sites across Texas. It launched in October to celebrate the map’s 20th anniversary. Why a planning map needed ghosts is a fair question, but here we are.
In Lubbock, only one location made the list: Lubbock Cemetery, the resting place of Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Buddy Holly. The cemetery also comes with a legend. Local lore says kissing the feet of its angel statue keeps the ghosts away. That ritual is now attached to an official state map, which is a sentence we never expected to write.
For those of us in Lawton, there’s a catch. Public submissions might not open until 2027, so there’s no way to nominate a spot near the Wichita Mountains or an old building downtown yet. That gives you a year to polish your story. What’s the most haunted place you know of around Lawton?
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Local Lawton
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