It seems as though every city in the United States has a tale about a road where a ghost may be seen pacing up and down the curbside at night, hoping to hitch a ride. Cedar Hill’s Mt. Lebanon Road appears to be a phantom route.
According to one legend I discovered, there is a pack of ghost canines that roam the east side of the highway and haunt the abandoned houses there. It was said that visitors who came at dusk and parked near the property’s back while facing south could hear the dogs barking. If you try to start your car before the ghost dogs have passed, the gauge will show that you have no petrol, according to one individual who recounted his experience there. The barking gets closer as the sun sets.
Another account I uncovered included a cemetery on Mount Lebanon that was conveniently situated next to a main thoroughfare. People with long black cloaks were said to have been seen beside a fire in the woods. If you try to escape and they notice you, a car will supposedly follow you to the service road and vanish there.
Cedar Hill’s Pleasant Valley Cemetery, located off Texas Plume Road, is also featured in “Haunted Dallas” and on the site. The cemetery was walled off and located close to a residential area when I wrote my book. This cemetery dates back to 1848 and is located at Cedar Hill on a hillside not far from Joe Pool Lake. It was common knowledge that this area, now known as Ghost Mountain, was formerly known as Witch Mountain or Old Spook Hill. Once a part of the Old Chisolm Trail on its way to Fort Worth, this area is significant to the history of the cemetery.
An early resident of the area, a man named Jacob Gardner Boydstun, set aside three acres of land for the cemetery and a church. He joined his wife and others in being laid to rest in that spot. The grave robbery was prevalent at this cemetery before it was designated a Texas Historical Landmark in 1995, and the legend of the goat man who prowls the grounds in search of him seems to be at the heart of the paranormal activity here.
