Stone Oak author uncovers rough history in Texas ghost town 7

Stone Oak author uncovers rough history in Texas ghost town
February 17, 2011
by Edmond Ortiz
my SA

Stone Oak resident Barry Harrin's exploration of a small South Texas ghost city in his fourth book, “Helena, Texas: The Toughest Town on Earth,” covers lots of ground.

Based on his research, Harrin says the featured stories were purposely hidden from school textbooks and other resources.

What stories, you ask? According to Harrin, a more realistic history of Texas can be found via such chapters that examine how Spain and Texas Hispanics had a major impact on the American Revolution, a very bloody battle that is virtually unknown, and a secret group that may have been involved in President Lincoln's assassination.

And there's plenty of talk about ghosts.

“My ex-wife is originally from Helena, Texas, and I first went there in 1988 and became fascinated by the history of the town and (Karnes) County.

“I quickly discovered that although Helena, Texas, had become a virtual "ghost town," it had a critical, but forgotten role in Texas history that I found quite intriguing,” Harrin explained.

“Over the next 22 years, I read hundreds of books and documents related to South Texas and Helena. I also did original research through metal detecting of historic artifacts and interviewing as many older residents as I could get to share information and their family histories. What surprised me was the amount of ‘real' Texas history that had been hidden and kept out of our history books for a variety of reasons.”

Harrin is familiar with writing provocative books. The Brooklyn, N.Y. native and Vietnam veteran earned an electrical engineering degree and worked for telecommunications firms such as AT&T and Bell South after his military career.

In 1985, he received an executive position with an emerging Texas telecom company and moved to Stone Oak in 1992.

He has started several other telecoms across five continents. He has also conducted business training seminars and has been featured in numerous news and feature interviews.

“After working for large corporations and discovering how difficult it was to get promoted, “I wrote a book in 1991 to teach the secrets of getting ahead in business called ‘A Manager's Guide to Guerrilla Warfare.' In 1992, I wrote a humorous autobiography called ‘Guess Who's Listening at the Other End of Your Telephone,'” Harrin said.

“From the mid-1990s until right before Sept. 11, 2001, I worked in the Muslim ghettos of Europe and in Cairo, Egypt, and received a street education in Islamic fundamentalism and completed ‘The Islamic Conquest of Europe 2020' in 2004.”

With “Helena, Texas,” research led Harrin to surprising finds — not only discoveries that challenged his belief in established history but also those that painted a picture of a harsh existence for residents and visitors in Helena.

Duels, famed violent outlaws, blood feuds and even a massacre marred Helena's existence in days long gone by. In literature publicizing the new book, Harrin says the real story of Helena and South Texas makes the “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone look like … a Sunday school picnic.”

One of the most unique research experiences for Harrin was paranormal activity in the ghost town.

“Helena, Texas is a ghost town with real ghosts that have terrorized its inhabitants for well over a hundred years — strange fireballs, sounds, footsteps, shadows and voices,” Harrin said, noting a few other claims.

“Floor fans stopping in the dead of the night as the electrical plug flies out of the wall socket and then crashes to the floor. Mothers seeing a shadow walking past a night light at midnight, afraid to scream and wake their children. People pushed as they walk down the steps of the old 1973 courthouse.”

The author said he and associates took equipment to record and examine electronic voice phenomena (EVP) and other paranormal activity initially in 2007. He was joined by members of the San Antonio Paranormal Network on another survey in 2008. An array of equipment, ranging from digital voice recorders and cameras to infrared cameras and temperature sensors were used in the ghost-hunting excursions.

The video cameras were run during the night in the original 1873 courthouse (now a museum) as well as several other buildings from the 1850s through the 1870s. “In one old building the team leader had me antagonize the original inhabitants verbally,” Harrin said.

“Within less than five minutes, the temperature around me rose from 64 degrees to 85 degrees, and I suspect I didn't make any ghostly friends that night.”

Last November, digital voice recorders were used in conjunction with paranormal applications to enhance the voice responses, Harrin noted.

“Some of those more recent EVP's were very frightening to the participants as you can hear on our website, www.helenatexas.com,” he added.

Writing-wise, Harrin plans a follow-up of sorts, "The Islamic Conquest of America 2025."

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