Texas Unexplained: Strange Tales and Mysteries from the Lone Star State

By Jay W. Sharp

Here are a round dozen fascinating and suspenseful tales about the unexplained side of Texas. The stories inform, arouse, and even move the reader, allowing a view of the state from a different perspective at each turn. As varied as the stories may be, they all share the theme of mystery. The reader will discover ghosts, spirits, and apparitions; eerie sounds, strange lights, and baffling discoveries; buried treasure, a lost ship, and inexplicable events; a monster, a natural miracle, and an enigmatic assassination. Amazingly, the reader will also learn about places in Texas where some of these mysteries can still be experienced first-hand.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1885696345
• ISBN13: 9781885696342
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: Univ of Texas Pr
• Length: 134 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.3" x 0.5" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

"TEXAS UNEXPLAINED", by Jay W. Sharp

Here is a collection of a dozen short essays, in a variety of moods and styles, on the history, natural history, and para-history of Texas. We have straight historical narrative, as when the author tells the story of the "Lively", a ship carrying hopeful American settlers to Stephen F. Austin's colony in the then-Mexican province of Texas in 1821. Few voyages can have been as amazingly ill-fated as this one. In the book's longest piece we learn of the Mission of La Bahia, founded by the Spaniards in 1722 on the ruins of the first European settlement in Texas, Fort St. Louis, which had been established by the Frenchman LaSalle and destroyed by Indians 35 years earlier. The mission was moved twice, finally ending up at the place called Goliad. Those who know Texas history will remember Goliad as the site where 342 Texans were slaughtered on the orders of General Santa Anna, victor at the Alamo and vanquished by General Sam Houston at San Jacinto in the battle that made Texas an independent nation. The author does more than tell the story, though he does that very well. He probes the morality of imposing a foreign religion and culture on native people. He puts us in the shoes of the generals and men; we see and feel the emotions of fear and hope, courage and cowardice, faith and betrayal. There are lighter pieces too. The author claims to have conducted personal interviews with Cheetwah, ghost-guardian of buried treasure in the Franklin Mountains near El Paso; and with the chief of the Texas branch of the Sasquatch ("Big-Foot"), in which he reveals the truth behind the failure of the Dallas Cowboys' attempt to recruit Sasquatch for the team. For this reviewer, the most affecting piece was also the most personal. Anyone who lived through the terrible drought of the 1950's will feel a pang of sympathy for the teenager who watched the spring-fed creek that watered his grandparents' Cottle County ranch dry up to a sere and dusty wash; and will share his joy when the waters return. Jay Sharp is Texas born and bred. He is cur ious about the natural world -- the weather, the landscape, animals, plants, birds (there is a short but wide-ranging treatment of hummingbirds); and the people -- the Indians, the Spanish, the Mexicans, the American settlers -- who became the Texans. He is fascinated by the legends; the tales of lost treasure, the ghost stories, the oral history of the Indians, the "unexplained", such as the mysterious Marfa lights. Above all he is interested in human character. This little book delivers more than its size and simple appearance would suggest. Mr. Sharp, how about a sequel?