Episode 31 - The Baby Head Cemetery

Throughout the United States you will find communities with strange names.  Perhaps the strangest is found in the hill country of Texas.  

 Texas is a wonderful place to travel to enjoy beautiful scenery, the famous blue bonnets and other Texas wildflowers, and sites that chronical the storied American West.

 In this episode I look at the strange story behind a little-known Texas ghost town.  It is the story of the Baby Head Cemetery

References:  

 Highlander News (www.highlandernews.com)

Texas Hill Country (www.texashillcountry.com)

Atlas Obscura (www.atlasobscura.com)

Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org)

Chris Restores TX (https://www.youtube.com/@chrisrestorestx)

Transcript

Hello Friends,

 I’m your host Dave Laton and welcome to Signs of Our Time, Discovering America’s heritage, one sign at a time.

 This podcast is designed to provide the story behind the story found on America’s roadside historical signs and markers.  

 In this episode I look at the strange story behind the story of the Baby Head Cemetery

 An iconic image of the American west are ghost towns.  These old west towns grew out of the westward expansion of America and dot the landscape throughout many of the western states.

 Many of these towns started as boom towns based on mining of various minerals and oil.  Once the minerals and oil played out, so too did the population as they moved on to other opportunities to strike it rich.

Others started as way stations or army forts to protect settlers and give them an opportunity to resupply as they continued their western trek.

 It is estimated that there are between 3,800 to 4,500 ghost towns in America, primarily in the west.  

Perhaps one of the strangest ghost towns in Texas is now marked only by a cemetery with a ghostly name.  It is the Baby Head Cemetery located on highway 16 approximately 10 miles from the Texas Hill Country city of Llano (My apologies to our Texas friends if I am mispronouncing the name of the city).  

Nothing remains of the once thriving town of Baby Head.  The historical marker located there tells the one version of the story.  The “true” story is obscured by history and has grown as it has aged.

As the story goes, sometime in the mid 1800’s a young girl was kidnapped and killed by native Americans in the area as an attempt to scare the encroaching settlers away.  Her head was supposedly found on a stake close to a mountain in the area.  The mountain became known as Baby Head Mountain.  

A community known as Baby Head grew up around the area.  It eventually had a post office, school, courthouse, several businesses, and of course, the cemetery.  

 As you can imagine, the name conjures up all kinds of ghost stories.  Visitors and locals in the area report unusual occurrences such as the feeling of being watched, unusual and unexplained noises, and of course, sightings of phantom figures.  

The cemetery remains active today.   There are several graves marking the remains of early settlers, and of course, children.  The oldest documented grave is for a child, Jodie May McKneely, who died on New Year's Day 1884.  The latest dated grave marker is from 2000.  

A common sight is baby doll heads and hands on the headstones.  This only adds to the eerie atmosphere.  Some have even seen pennies placed on grave markers.  This is a traditional way of expressing sorrow for the loss of someone.

By 1968 there were only 20 residents remaining in the community.  It soon became absorbed in the greater Llano, Texas area.  In 2019, the cemetery was listed as Texas cemeteries considered to be haunted.  But the only way to prove it is to visit the cemetery on a dark, moonless night.

I want to give a shout out for my friend Chris Woosley.  Chris travels throughout Texas restoring and repairing historical markers.  He recently did a feature of the Baby Head historical marker on his YouTube channel, Chris restores TX. I encourage you to check out the fascinating videos documenting the markers as he works on them.  

I also had Chris as a guest on this podcast channel.  You can learn about what Chris does by listening to episode number 23.  Thanks Chris.

(https://www.youtube.com/@chrisrestorestx) 

Well friends, there you have it.  A story behind the story from America’s historical signs and markers.  I hope you enjoyed this episode.  I invite you to subscribe and continue listening as we bring more episodes about the rich heritage of our great nation.

Please share this podcast with others.  If you have interesting stories about historical signs and markers, email me at: americanhistoricalmarkers@gmail.com.  Maybe your story behind the story will be featured.

I’m your host Dave Laton and thank you for listening, and safe travels!