Oakland Cemetery - Shreveport, LA (Fee Fo Lais, Cora Lee and the Cotton Patch)

Milam St.

Shreveport, LA 71101

32.508674,-93.754619

www.oaklandcemeteryla.org 

            I have never been too proud for shameless self-promotion. In 2008, when I wrote my first book Paranormal Uncensored: A Raw Look at Louisiana Ghost Hunting, I tried to think of a clever image for the book cover. Despite the saying, people do judge a book by its cover so I had to make sure it had meaning. My book was all about being different than the norm and breaking through the stereotypical paranormal books that were already around. Around this same time, we would conduct an investigation of the famous Shreveport Municipal Auditorium, which we will go into great detail a few blogs from now. We had arrived at the auditorium with daylight to spare and we had noticed a cemetery only a few feet away. We decided to stroll through this unique cemetery, just as any paranormal investigator would do to kill time. We were accompanied by the director of the auditorium at the time and she would give us a crash course on this extremely interesting and historical cemetery.

Joseph Jefferson Mansion - New Iberia, LA (Rip Van Winkle and the Buried Treasure)

5505 Rip Van Winkle Rd.

New Iberia, LA 70560

29.975237,-91.973441

www.ripvanwinklegardens.com

            In all my years of investigating, I don't think I have ever visited a location where the land itself has an even more interesting history than the haunted house that sits there. That is, until I visited the Joseph Jefferson Mansion and Rip Van Winkle Gardens, located on the outskirts of New Iberia on Jefferson Island. Although the focal point of this blog will be the home, to truly appreciate the complexity of this location, I must first introduce you to the unique land.
            Jefferson Island, originally known as Orange Island, helps make up the famous “Five Islands” of Louisiana. The islands were created due to enormous pressures in the earth, forcing large amounts of salt rock to form a mother bed located five miles below the earth's surface. This elevated several low laying hills, which became the five islands: Jefferson, Weeks, Belle Isle, Cote Blanche and Avery Island. These islands are elevated anywhere between fifty and one hundred feet above sea level, which due to the islands' proximities to the Gulf of Mexico, this is considered extremely high ground.

Hyatt High School - Fields, LA (The Mysterious Orb Video)

6249 Louisiana 109 

Fields, LA 70653

30.524764,-93.57605

         The initial schoolhouse in Fields was built around the late 1800's by the Hyatt family who settled along Windham Creek in the 1860's. The structure was your standard school for the era, as it was a small wood-framed building with no more than five or six rooms. A simple school for a few of the local community's kids who had the luxury of getting an education, as opposed to the many who were simply forced to begin manual labor at an early age.
          Due to a sudden population growth caused by an oil boom in the local area, a new school was needed to accommodate the expansion and was constructed in 1939. This new brick-laid school was large enough to house all twelve grades and included a large gym with a stage, a small building in the rear for various Agriculture classes and a cafeteria. The old original school building, along with another wood framed structure were then used as extra class rooms.