Dead Man's Hole - Marble Falls, TX
Posted by: 
Raven
N 30° 31.705 W 098° 15.897
14R E 570516 N 3377570
Notorious after the US Civil War, this was the illegal lynching site and dumping ground of up to 17 Texas pro-Union supporters and reconstruction-era county government officials (as well as a local murderer, killed and dumped here out of revenge).
Waymark Code: WMXMK4
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 01/29/2018
Views: 6
"The Texas Hill Country is filled with countless beautiful landmarks and tales of rich cultural diversity. Just a few miles south of Marble Falls, in Burnet County, however, lies a much more sinister type of landmark. On what is now a several-acre park sits a well-like sinkhole eerily deemed Dead Man’s Hole.
Measuring about seven feet in diameter and approximately 155 feet deep, the cavernous Dead Man’s Hole was formed by pressure from natural gas inside the earth. Initially discovered by entomologist Ferdinand Lueders in 1821, the hole gained its moniker decades later during the Civil War and the Reconstruction Era.
Burnet County voted in opposition of secession by a relatively one-sided count of 248 to 149, which became one factor that led many Union supporters to seek refuge in the Hill Country, a decision most would come to regret. Awaiting them in Burnet County was a radical group known as the “Fire Eaters,” described as “worse than the Indians” when it came to violence. This group held on to Confederate beliefs, and secretly hunted and killed anyone whom they believed expressed opposing views. Described in many historical accounts as “fanatics”, the Fire Eaters looked upon their violent actions as a heroic stand for the Confederate.
Although there is no report of exactly how the group came upon what is now Dead Man’s Hole, the area became a dumping ground for bodies of Union supporters that were hunted down by the Fire Eaters. An oak tree once stood beside the site that is said to have scars from ropes used in hangings during hasty and biased “trials,” after which the bodies were cut down and dropped directly into the hole. Reports vary as to the body count, ranging from 17 to more than 36 bodies. It is rumored that bags of bones were discovered in the hole, although their whereabouts are now topic of dispute.
Perhaps one of the most prominent names associated with Dead Man’s Hole is John R. Scott, a judge born in New York that sought freedom in Burnet County. Scott had four sons serving in the Confederate Army but was nonetheless accused of expressing Union sympathies. Scott was chased down by the Fire Eaters as he attempted to flee to Mexico and is said to be one of the bodies that were found at the bottom of Dead Man’s Hole."
Source:
TexasHillCountry.comAnother infamous killing which occurred here was that of Ben McKeever, who surprisingly was NOT hunted down by the Fire Eaters but by freedmen instead. Ben McKeever had murdered a local freedman because the ex-slave's dog bit his horse. Five of the black man's friends caught up with McKeever and ambushed him, killing him in a hail of shotgun blasts and then tossing his body down the hole. McKeever's body was retrieved from the hole a few days later: three of the men received life sentences, one received a two-year prison term, and the fifth was found not guilty.
After Reconstruction, Dead Man's hole was seldom used as a tomb anymore... but the mysteries surrounding the fissure continued to deepen. Unfortunately, the presence of toxic gases made a scientific investigation of its interiors impossible for more than 80 years. It was not until 1968 when the Texas Speleological Society, using special breathing equipment, entered the hole for the first time to properly map the fissure and measure its dimensions: while the entrance was indeed just 7 feet wide, the hole itself ended up to be 155 feet deep and 50 feet long at the bottom!
Eventually the opening to the fissure was sealed with an iron grate and the area received a historical marker in 1998. A year later, the property's landowner -- Lou Roper -- deeded Dead Man’s Hole and 6.5 acres of land around it to Burnet County, to be used as a seldom-visited municipal park.
While many visitors that venture out here to view it are most likely those seeking a late-night spook, Dead Man’s Hole exists as a somber reminder of a very dark time in Burnet County history, as well as the history of the state of Texas.