New Orleans Haunts
Discover the haunting history of the Old Ursuline Convent in New Orleans—legends of vampires, ghostly nuns, and eerie secrets await. Dare to explore? #NewOrleans #HauntedHistory #AmericanGhostWalks
Experience Muriel's Jackson Square, a haunted restaurant in New Orleans. Enjoy delicious cuisine with a ghostly twist in the heart of the French Quarter!
Explore the vibrant history and culture of Decatur Street in New Orleans. From iconic landmarks to thrilling ghost tours with American Ghost Walks, discover the city's most famous street!
Explore the birthplace of jazz and the history of voodoo in New Orleans. Discover how music and mysticism shaped the city's unique cultural fusion.
Uncover centuries of vampire lore in New Orleans, from blood-curdling tales of the French Quarter to haunting legends of immortal beings that still captivate the city today.
The LaLaurie Mansion in New Orleans' French Quarter is notorious for its dark past under Madame Delphine LaLaurie, where enslaved people faced brutal torment. Known for eerie sightings and unexplained sounds, it's one of the city's most haunted and chilling landmarks.
Join us in exploring the vibrant traditions of the Day of the Dead, or Día de los Muertos, a celebration of the departed widely observed in Mexico and Latin America that is a fusion of cultures.
Spanish moss hanging from towering oaks, garden statues resembling a woman and children turned to stone, and a grand antebellum home filled with curious antiques, The Myrtles Plantation certainly looks the part of a haunted Southern plantation house. Located in Louisiana's West Feliciana Parish, in the town of St. Francisville. It's about 100 miles northwest of New Orleans and 30 miles north of Louisiana's capital, Baton Rouge. It was built circa 1796 by General David Bradford, who was a leader in the Whiskey Rebellion, a protest against the newly-formed federal government's whiskey tax. After George Washington himself ordered Bradford’s execution, he fled to Louisiana, where Bradford eventually acquired the land that would become his plantation which he called Laurel Grove. The Myrtles Plantation has been called the most haunted house in America. The first reports of paranormal activity likely originated long ago within the families of former owners but were first written about in the 1900s and some of the Myrtles' ghost stories were documented during the Federal Writer's Project in 1941 and in the 1948 photolog, "Ghosts Along the Mississippi," by Clarence Laughlin. Many vacationers seeking a scare, including Hollywood luminaries Dan Aykroyd, Nicholas Cage, and Hilary Swank, have stayed the night. Unsolved Mysteries filmed there in 2002 and the Ghost Hunters shot an episode there in 2005 as well. Chloe, a vengeful ghost? While David Bradford died in 1808, his daughter Sara married one of David’s law students Clark Woodruff and they operated the plantation there until Bradford’s wife died in 1831. The most famous of the reputed ghost stories at the house comes from this time. A slave named Chloe there was reportedly pressured or forced Chloe into being his mistress. According to Hester Eby, who gave tours at the Myrtles for almost thirty years, in an interview that we did in 2012, tells the story: The story of Chloe and the children began with the second owner Judge Clark Woodruff who supposedly took Chloe on as a mistress. She was caught eavesdropping some of the family's business that was not allowed. It was during the time that they believed whatever caused you to sin should be removed. So Judge Woodruff cut off her left ear. That left her so upset that she baked the birthday cake for his oldest daughter and used the juices from the Oleander leaf in that cake, killing the judge's wife, Sarah, and 2 of her children. And there are 3 of the ghosts along with Chloe that are still seen and heard here. And, of course, Chloe is a slave, but a lot of guests that tell us they see Chloe from the shoulders down, they see nothing but a blue mist of a shade from the neck up. She's a black woman with the large earring on the right ear, the left ear missing, and, of course, she's wearing a turban. This turban-wearing ghost, would come up in several pictures of the plantation, including the most recent one taken in 2017.
New Orleans is a city full of contradictions. It's a place of great joy and great tragedy, of jazz and football, of Mardi Gras and haunted history. But perhaps the most fascinating aspect of this city is its association with voodoo, a religion that has a unique history and has been the subject of countless misconceptions. In the book "New Orleans Voodoo: A Cultural History" , written by Rory O’Neill Schmitt and her mother Rosary O’Neill, the authors provide an insightful and respectful exploration of a topic that is often misunderstood and demonized. Voodoo is not the black magic of Hollywood movies, nor is it a religion practiced by some "other" group of people. In fact, it is a spiritual practice that has its roots in West African animism, Roman Catholicism, and New World necessity. The authors offer a respectful and insightful exploration that shows how Voodoo is a normal way of seeing the world and finding spirituality in everyday life.