The Haunting Tale Of Baby Head: A Texas Ghost Town’s Dark Past

Drive across enough of Texas and there are plenty of places to stop and learn about our history.

Across Texas there are towns that have been abandoned. Some that have nothing left but a marker that points to the history of the town. Ghost Towns are everywhere and they each have a story to tell. One of the most mysterious and gruesome is located just north of Llano, Texas. The old town of Baby Head.

Below you will see some pictures from the cemetery, but first here's what we know about Baby Head.

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Baby Head, Texas. A Hill Country Mystery

Don't bother looking for an old gas station or even a falling down house. In Baby Head, those don't exist. If you are traveling north on Highway 16 from Llano and you are looking for a "Welcome to Baby Head" sign, you won't see one. It doesn't exist. The only thing left of Baby Head is a Historical Marker, the Baby Head Cemetery, and of course Baby Head Mountain to the west and Baby Head Creek to the east.

Why The Name Baby Head?

This is where the ghost town's history gets both gruesome and controversial. The widely accepted story according to 101highlandlakes.com is accepted mainly due to writings and stories that were told and handed down. According to TexasHillCountry.com, between 1850 and 1870 a group of Native Americans attacked a group of settlers and kidnapped a young girl. According to stories passed down, the girl was killed and her head was put on a spike at the foot of the mountain. In 1870, settlers settled in the area and named the town Babyhead in the child's honor. There are, in fact, maps showing the town's name as Babyhead.

But that isn't the only possible way Baby Head got it's name. According to 101highlandlakes.com, in the 1990's a historian came across a different version of the story where it ranchers killed a child and blamed it on the Native Americans in the area.

We do know that some publications spelled Baby Head as one word, Babyhead. Though today it is widely accepted as Baby Head.

Baby Head Cemetery

Today, all that is left from the town is the cemetery with a really creepy name. And by the way, there is a very good chance that the little girl who died, isn't even buried in the cemetery since the oldest market dates back to 1884, well after the founding of the town.

But that doesn't stop visitors from leaving heads of baby dolls on the oldest marker and on the fence around the cemetery.