Haunted Frisco: The Ghost Stories and Urban Legends Locals Still Tell

Updated October 2026

Every town has its ghost stories, and Frisco has been collecting them since it was a little railroad stop with a water tank for steam engines. Some of these tales have been passed from neighbor to neighbor for decades. A few have a perfectly reasonable explanation. A few don’t.

Are they true? That’s your call. Just maybe don’t read this one alone.

The Crozier-Sickles House at the Frisco Heritage Center

Nannie Crozier built this house in 1895 in the old community of Lebanon, near today’s Preston Road and John Hickman Parkway. Her husband, John, had died two years earlier and left her to run his land and raise three daughters. When the railroad came through in 1902 and most of Lebanon picked up and moved to the brand-new town of Frisco, she stayed put. Her family lived in the house for decades, and her youngest daughter, Lula, died of typhoid in 1900 while she was still in college.

In 1977, John and Donna Sickles bought the home, and that’s when things got strange. The couple described misty shapes they called apparitions and loud thumping in the upstairs hallway at all hours of the night. A small shadowy figure darted in and out of bedrooms. A little gray cat kept showing up in the hallway mirror, which was odd, because they never owned a cat. Photos taken in that hallway came out blank or blurry, while pictures everywhere else in the house turned out fine.

It all got worse while Mr. Sickles was remodeling. The couple nearly moved out. We’ll just say this: nobody, living or otherwise, enjoys a renovation.

Look closely at the staircase and you’ll spot the seventh baluster from the bottom installed upside down. Builders of that era sometimes did it on purpose, because folklore said it kept spirits downstairs and away from the bedrooms. Did it work? The Sickles family later donated the house to the City of Frisco, and it now sits in the Heritage Village at the Frisco Heritage Center, 6455 Page St. The original parlor sofa and chair are still there, along with an upstairs bed, dresser and rocking chair donated by Nannie Crozier’s great-grandsons.

Visit: The Heritage Museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Guided walking tours of the village are offered on Wednesdays by request. Bring a camera, and check your hallway shots.

Randy’s Steakhouse

Randy’s has served steaks out of a Victorian home on Main Street since 1993, and the restaurant dates the house itself to 1865. It’s one of the most charming dining rooms in town. It also has a reputation.

Staff over the years have told stories of doors that lock themselves, and lights that go out and are back on by the time someone comes to fix them. Cabinets slam shut on their own. Bartenders have set up the glassware at closing, then come in the next day to find it rearranged. Theories range from a member of the original family still looking after the place to a railroad worker who never made it home. Nobody knows for sure. The filet is excellent either way.

Visit: 7026 Main St. Open nightly, 5 to 10 p.m.

The Frisco Ghost Train

Frisco exists because of the railroad. In 1902, the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway, better known as “the Frisco,” laid track through the area and put a water stop for its steam engines a few miles west of Lebanon. A town grew up around it, and residents named it after the railroad. The tracks that started it all still run right through downtown.

Here’s the legend. Longtime residents have told of hearing an old steam engine at night, whistle and all, rolling toward town. People would step outside, see a headlight getting closer down the line, and then… nothing. No train. No sound. Just a quiet track and a lot of confused neighbors in their pajamas.

Some folks say you can still hear it on quiet nights. That’s a little harder to prove when real trains still use the line, so the next time a whistle wakes you up at 2 a.m., you get to decide which kind it was.

Goatman’s Bridge (Old Alton Bridge)

It’s not technically in Frisco, but it’s just across Lewisville Lake and has been a rite of passage for generations of North Texas teenagers. The Old Alton Bridge is an iron truss bridge built in 1884 over Hickory Creek, connecting Denton and Copper Canyon. It carried horses, wagons and eventually cars until 2001, when traffic moved to a newer bridge next door. It has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1988.

Locals just call it Goatman’s Bridge. The nickname traces back to a goat farmer who lived nearby and was known around the area as “the Goatman.” Over the decades, the stories grew into sightings of a half-man, half-goat figure in the woods. Visitors report strange lights, footsteps on the bridge and the occasional pebble tossed from nowhere. And then there’s the classic rule: cross the bridge at night with your headlights off, and the Goatman will be waiting for you on the other side.

Cars can’t cross it anymore, so these days you walk it. Go in daylight, wear real shoes, and let us know if anything follows you home.

The Man in the Straw Hat

This one comes from old downtown, where a funeral home known for years as Staley Funeral Home once stood. The legend says that long after it closed, neighbors started reporting a man in a straw hat carrying a shovel, walking the property and peeking into windows. Plenty of people swore they saw him. Nobody ever caught up with him.

Some say he’s an old worker still looking for a shift. Others say he’s a former client who never quite left. Either way, he’s polite enough to keep to himself.

Want a Little Scare This Halloween?

If the ghost stories put you in the mood, here’s where to find the real-life spooky fun:

• Our 2026 fall guide has Frisco’s Halloween events, trunk-or-treats and pumpkin patches in one place.
• The Lifestyle Frisco events calendar lists what’s happening this weekend.
• Handing out candy this year? Try one of our 10 fun ways to hand out Halloween candy.

Believe them or not, these stories are part of Frisco’s history, handed down porch to porch for generations. Happy haunting, Frisco. Boo.