Greenwood Cemetery - Shreveport, LA (The Spectral Skid Mark)

130 Stoner Ave.

Shreveport, LA 71101

32.500049,-93.731724

            It wouldn’t be right to touch on hauntings in Shreveport without visiting a couple of creepy cemeteries. Besides, aren’t all cemeteries haunted? Sadly, the answer would be no, but they sure make for some great places to visit to admire historical graves and get a case of the “heebie jeebies”. The Greenwood Cemetery, not to be confused with the smaller Greenwood Town Cemetery, is a short distance from the Red River. It initially started as a small ten-acre plot of land called the New City Cemetery. Formerly, the land is said to have been part of a home known as the Stoner

Map and legend of the cemetery grounds, along with the
locations of the most notable gravesites.

Plantation. Research also shows that prior to that, the land housed a Civil War military hospital as well as the first charity hospital. In 1905, the name would be changed to Greenwood Cemetery, and the site has grown to over seventy-acres.
            The cemetery is the home to individuals of all races, ranks and titles. Several Confederate soldiers have been laid to rest here along with four former mayors of Shreveport. One of the most notable burials here is that of Milton Taylor Hancock, the inventor of the modern disc plow. In 1892, Hancock’s four year old daughter, Ethyl, would pass away. She was buried in a cast-iron coffin that was placed in the family tomb. A chair would be placed inside the tomb, which Milton’s wife, Nina, would sit in each evening when she visited Ethyl. In 1903, tragedy would strike again, as they lost their twenty-four year-old daughter, Irene. She would also be buried in the vault with her young sister, followed by her parents.

Holloway Cemetery - Deville, LA (A Ghost Hunter's Training Grounds)

Holloway Cemetery (Deville)

31.363852,-92.217554 

            Located off the backroads of Deville, Louisiana, the Holloway Cemetery (Hickory Grove Cemetery) is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, cemetery in the surrounding area, having graves dating back as old as the 1820's. The cemetery is quite large, yet the graves are spread out scarcely. The grounds are said to have once contained a missionary and the site of several hangings from the massive oak trees present, yet no verifiable documentation has been found of these ever existing.
            Years ago, this was one of the first cemeteries that we used as training grounds, so to speak. Starting out with your own group is difficult, as you cannot just jump right in and start investigating private homes and grand historical locations. You have to start somewhere, and for most groups, public cemeteries are prime places to start.