Guided tour gives insight to city’s past

Shreveport’s history can become addictive when adding in “residual” and “poltergeist” hauntings.

“Residual hauntings mean something is left behind and the energy that is left behind can be attached to an object, a person, building or a piece of land,” Shreveport native Brad Driggers said. “Poltergeist hauntings are rather just odd things happening with no explanation – like something moves across the room by itself.”

The safest way to get a firsthand experience is a guided tour called Haunted Shreveport. The tour leads guests into areas and clues that peak into a past of a city filled with lurking energy.

Driggers, who shares a love for Shreveport’s history and the paranormal, guides the haunted tour.

Haunted Shreveport begins with a fourcourse meal at Twine, located at 1513 Line Ave. This meal is accompanied by wine and a “ghoulishly good dessert.”

Beginning the tour, patrons board an iShuttle that takes you around downtown Shreveport. The first stop is the most notable known for carrying strong energy – the Caddo Parish Courthouse.

“If you look at some of the materials that the courthouse was built out of, like around the doorway, we talk about residual hauntings carrying energy from the past. This is the second courthouse that they built on this site,” Driggers said.

On the top floor of the building is where they executed prisoners back in the day, Driggers said.

“A lot people have reported hearing the gates opening and closing and rattling real loud. The jail is not used at this time,” Driggers said. “The most gruesome crime scene took place on the fourth floor of the [courthouse building].”

Driggers said it is reported that shadows are seen around the fourth floor and workers think that it could be linked to victim of that crime.

The iShuttle winds around downtown, as Driggers carries the tour to the topic of Oakland Cemetery.

Pointing out toward the cemetery, Driggers discusses a gravesite that houses up to 759 bodies from when Shreveport had an epidemic of yellow fever.

“You can imagine how unrestful those souls are that are just thrown in that grave –no casket, no burial,” Driggers said.

Also in Oakland Cemetery, Driggers mentioned a grave that seemed disturbed. That grave is Cora Lee Wilson who died at the age of 22 and refuses to stay buried.

“The city of Shreveport rebuilds her tomb every few years to repair her gravesite and it keeps messing back up,” Driggers said. “They always say that if it was vandalized bricks would be moved from the outside in and not how it is [from the inside out].”

Driggers said he has images of the site being so bad that her coffin was able to be seen.

“We don’t know much about her or why she died, but we know that she refuses to stay buried.”

After the cemetery, the tour stops at Logan Mansion, where Billy and Vicki LeBrun reside. From there, Vicki steps in to guide the tour around her house to share the history and experiences that seem “unexplainable.”

Vicki said a couple of months after they bought the house they were contacted by Rose Hart, the granddaughter of Wade Hampton, the second owner and cousin of the first owner, Lafayette Robert Logan. Hart always kept up with the owners of the Logan Mansion and asked if she could come and visit.

After agreeing, the couple was met by Hart and she said, “Well have you met the ghost?” At first Vicki did not believe she had ghost but began referencing strange occurrences happening around the house.

Guests get the chance to view all 17 rooms of the mansion and even get to experience the attic, the room where the little girl is said to have fallen out of the window.

Vicki said though they do not know the story about the little girl, they do not feel threatened.

The tour concludes at Twine with a chance to talk and view images of potential ghosts that might show up in pictures.Other stories along the tour include the Davis Home Place, the resting place of Trilby the Elephant and the infamous Municipal Auditorium.

For more information on booking a Haunted Shreveport tour, go to www. hauntedshreveport.com. Tours are known to fill up fast so book in advance. Haunted Shreveport offers tours until Nov. 9.

The Logan Mansion also offers a special candlelight Halloween tour. Call 459-2285 or email [email protected] for more information.

–Lydia Earhart