Best Places to Look For Ghosts in Louisiana
It's that time of year again,and if we're being honest, Louisiana is a very spooky place. I'm all about a good scare or two, and we don't ever have to go far to find some ghosts here in the Bayou State.
Only in Louisiana has found some places that you are more than likely to encounter a spirit from the other world. Some of these I've been to, and some of them I'm looking forward to visiting. Check them out below and let us know if you're brave enough to go ghost hunting this Halloween. You've been warned.
- Municipal Auditorium, 705 Grand Ave., Shreveport. Opened in 1929, and on the National Register of Historic Places, and designated a National Historic Landmark. It was also home to the historic Louisiana Hayride radio program from 1948-1960. Rumor has it that clapping can be heard from time to time, and a disembodied voice saying 'I love Johnny Cash'.
- DeRidder Jail, 412 Bolivar Bishop Dr., DeRidder. Supposedly haunted by former prisoners in this Gothic structure that opened in 1914. Known as 'The Hanging Jail' since the 1950's, it is now open for tours only, and was used in the movie 'Eli' about a boy being treated for a rare disease in a haunted prison.
- Shadows on the Teche, 317 E Main St., New Iberia. This former plantation is supposedly haunted by previous resident Mary Moore, who passed away during the Civil War when the home was occupied by Union troops. Footsteps and voices have also frequently been heard.
- LaLaurie Mansion, 1140 Royal St.New Orleans. In a city filled with spooky history, this place is probably the scariest. Built in 1831, it is the former home to Madame Delphine LaLaurie, who tortured, maimed, and killed her slaves inside the home in the French Quarter. Her house of horrors was only discovered when it caught fire in 1834.
- Muriel’s Restaurant, 801 Chartres St., New Orleans. This Jackson Square restaurant has their own resident ghost, Pierre Antoine Lepardi Jourdan, who resided in the building in the 1700's. He apparently spends most of his time in Seance Lounge upstairs.
- Myrtles Plantation, 7747 Highway 61, St. Francisville. It's been called the most haunted house in America, and if you're on the grounds you just might see the ghost of the slave girl Chloe, who lost her ear to her master after eavesdropping. I was there over the weekend, and it's a pretty unsettling place.
- The Old State Capitol, 100 North Blvd., Baton Rouge. This Gothic castle overlooking the Mississippi river is apparently haunted by ghost of Pierre Couvillon, a 19th century Louisiana politician. It's a pretty spooky looking place, and it's now a museum.
- Bayou Sale Road, Dulac. The most haunted road in a state filled with haunted roads. LA 57 is between Dulac and Cocodrie, and a hitchhiking ghostly figure has been spotted many, many times over the years.
- Old Pea Farm, Shreveport.(also known as the Caddo Parish Penal Farm) Haunted by former inmates, and especially those that were incarcerated in the women's section of this now abandoned former jail. Built in the early 1900's and shut down in the 1950's, it is now owned by General Electric.