DENTON — Out at the foot of the Old Alton Bridge, Shaun Treat tells me a ghost story.
It revolves around a man named Oscar Washburn.
“He was a successful goat farmer,” explains Treat. “He was known for quality meats and cheeses and milk, but also purses and waistcoats and things like that.”
Treat is a former professor at the University of North Texas, a local historian, and a ghost tour guide in Denton.
He tells me that according to legend, Washburn supposedly lived right off the Old Alton Bridge in the late-1930s, during a time when the iron truss bridge served as a key connection point in rural North Texas.
“The main passage to Dallas came through here,” says Treat. “There was a big bunch of nothing between here and downtown Denton Square. This was darkness, my man.”