Previously: Hitsuka Station.
Type: PE (Preternatural Entity).
Period/location of origin: Unknown, San Antonio, Texas. Subject herself — the San Antonio Donkey Lady, as she is commonly known — may have originated as early as the mid-1800s or early 1900s, or as late as the 1950s; reports vary, and almost none agree with each other.
Similarly, it is unknown when tales of subject were first shared around the greater San Antonio community; some recall hearing versions of the story and/or visiting subject’s abode, Old Applewhite Bridge, also known as Donkey Lady Bridge, in the early 1950s, although it is possible that other versions were passed around before then.
Appearance: Subject’s appearance is directly related to the name by which she is widely known: That is, she is called the Donkey Lady because she resembles a donkey. The resemblance is typically described as the result of injuries sustained in a fire, or, less commonly, from being pushed off a bridge.
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Modus operandi: Subject is said to reside either directly beneath or in the woods surrounding Old Applewhite Bridge, located on Old Applewhite Road and currently accessible via the Medina River Greenway park trail within the San Antonio Greenway Trails system. For this reason, Old Applewhite Bridge is also often referred to as Donkey Lady Bridge.
Targets are self-selecting: Those who are tempted by the idea of legend-tripping bring themselves to subject, without any additional coaxing required.
Should targets pass by or cross subject’s bridge — subject’s home — at night, they may hear one or more strange sounds drifting out from the woods around them: The wailing of a woman; the braying of a donkey; the cry of a large animal.
According to some reports, targets who choose to drive to subject’s home may summon subject directly by parking on the bridge and honking their vehicle’s horn. Alternatively, targets may park near the bridge, rather than directly on it, turn the headlights off, and call out subject’s name three times in order to prompt her to appear. (Due to similarities in M.O., this researcher theorizes subject may be related to previous Encylopaedia subject Crybaby Bridge, although the precise connection has not yet been determined.)
Targets may or may not witness subject directly; however, if they choose to summon her, they may later find their vehicle to have sustained damage during their legend-trip: Claw marks may appear on the hood; the windshield may become cracked; and/or blood may be discovered smeared upon the vehicle.
Note that, should targets choose to approach, summon, or antagonize subject, whatever may befall them is the result of their own folly.
They are, after all, invading her territory. They are trespassing on her home.
They are the interlopers.
It is only to be expected that subject should respond to such interlopers.
Containment: Unknown. Subject has not been known to venture beyond the bridge she calls home; in that sense, she has contained herself. True containment relies entirely upon those who would seek subject out — or, rather on targets choosing to just stay home.
Additional notes: Numerous explanations regarding subject’s origins have been proposed.
According to one, a woman once lived with her family — a husband and children — on a farm in the mid-19th century near what is now modern-day San Antonio. A stranger passed by and tried to pet the family’s donkey; the donkey, however, would have none of it, and bit the stranger. He ran off in a rage, and later that night, set fire to the farm. The husband and children died in the blaze, but the woman survived, albeit badly injured. She left the ashes of the destroyed farmstead and took up residence in the woods, calling the space beneath the nearby bridge her new home and becoming subject in the process.
According to an alternate version of this story, the woman’s husband was abusive and set the fire himself. After the farmstead burned down, with her husband and her children in it, she again was left badly injured and ran into the woods and to the bridge that would later come to bear her name. She still roams the woods, wracked with grief and forever searching for her children.
In yet another version of the story, however, the woman is a childless spinster, living alone with a donkey she cares for in the place of a human child. Labeled as “other” by the village locals, she existed as a transgressive figure living within a liminal space, ostracized and often heaped upon with scorn. When a child of the village taunted her donkey, however, the donkey bit the child — but when she pointed out, upon being confronted by the adults of the village, that it was the child who chose to antagonize the donkey, not the other way around, the villagers were not pleased with her response. In the middle of the night, they set fire to her home, leaving her — again — badly injured. She fled into the woods, and began living beneath the bridge, becoming — again — subject.
Occasionally, it is said in this version that the woman and her donkey were drowned, rather than burned — and that the villagers pushed the pair off the bridge to do so.
It is sometimes said that subject does not just resemble her namesake, but — in versions of her origin story that involve pet donkeys — has somehow become one with her namesake. There is no consensus on what the case may actually be.
As folklorist Mercedes Elaina Torrez points out in “Evoking The Shadow Beast: Disability and Chicano Advocacy in San Antonio’s Donkey Lady Folktale,” published in the journal Contemporary Legend in 2016, the origin story that positions subject as a spinster who mothers not a human child, but a donkey, highlights “a broad history of prejudice, injustice, and violence against those who are non-normative.” Subject is othered first because she refused to cleave to the roles society dictated she should play — because she dared to push back against the idea that women should be wives and mothers, and only wives and mothers — and then later because her body and appearance have been rendered non-normative, as well.
Considering subject from this perspective necessitates that we examine our own role in her story — that we question why we are so eager to paint her as “monstrous,” and to summon her to gawk at her “monstrousness,” when she herself has been the victim of monstrous prejudice and violence perpetrated by others.
Ultimately, the story of subject says less about subject herself and more about the society in which she exists.
In short:
Who is really the “monster” here?
Recommendation: Although subject’s home is no longer accessible by car, it may be visited on foot by traversing the Medina River Greenway park trail. Conveniently, there is parking located at the Old Applewhite Trailhead for this trail. The trail is quite lovely, and may be safely walked during the daylight hours.
It is not recommended that visits be made at night.
Periodically, subject may also make appearances in a variety of forms with help from performance artist Marisela Barrera. Subject may, for instance, periodically run a phone line which may be reached by dialing the number 210-960-3826. More on this phone line may be found here. Subject may also appear onstage, as a talk show host, or occasionally grocery shopping. It is considered safe to encounter subject in these forms — so long as the communication and contact is respectful.
If subject wishes to tell you her tale, it is best you listen.
She deserves a voice of her own after all this time.
Resources:
“Evoking The Shadow Beast: Disability and Chicano Advocacy in San Antonio’s Donkey Lady Folktale” by Mercedes Elaina Torrez (Contemporary Legend, 2016).
“The Donkey Lady Bridge: San Antonio’s Terrifying Folk Tale” at Texas Hill Country.
“Texas’ Donkey Lady” at Coffee House Writers.
“The Legend Of The Donkey Lady” at Weird U.S.
“Legend of the Donkey Lady Still Haunts The Woods At Elm Creek” at the San Antonio Examiner.
“The Donkey Lady, A San Antonio Legend, Now Haunts The Phone Lines” at the San Antonio Report.
“Donkey Lady Returns With A Talk Show And A Famous Anarchist Guest” at the San Antonio Report.
Website of artist Marisela Barrera.
Donkey Lady Bridge on Google Maps.
Map of the Greenway Trails System.
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[Image via screenshot/Google Street View]
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