{"id":3432,"slug":"fort-livingston-grand-isle-louisiana","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["Fort Livingston is on Lafitte's island — the Grand Terre site where Jean Lafitte headquartered his Barataria smuggling operation until the Navy destroyed it in 1814. The fort that replaced him was named for his attorney — Edward Livingston, who defended the pirate and became Secretary of State. The 1841 brick-and-tabby fort never fired at an enemy — the Confederate occupation in the Civil War was the only use, the abandonment after Appomattox the only ending.","The Barataria Pass was the commerce — the back door to New Orleans that Lafitte controlled, the smuggled goods that made the Baratarians rich. The island was plantations after the Navy cleared it — the sugar that replaced the smuggling, the fort that came twenty years too late to fight anyone. The oil is the modern layer — the 2010 spill that coated the brick, the NCPTT cleaning tests on the tabby walls.","The file keeps Fort Livingston: the Lafitte site, the 1841 construction, the Civil War occupation, and the island state park.","Fort Livingston is the archive's Barataria file — the fort on the pirate's island."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["Fort Livingston is the archive's Barataria file — the fort built where Lafitte ruled.","A fort keeps its pirate — the file's suggestion being that Fort Livingston's hold is the irony: the stronghold named for the smuggler's lawyer, built where the smuggler's empire stood, and never used for the war it guarded against."]}],"name":"Fort Livingston","aliases":[],"type":"SITE","type_label":"Site","cats":["LOCAL_FOLKLORE","HAUNTED_PLACE","MILITARY"],"groups":["hauntings","legends"],"desc":"The 1841 fort—Barataria’s last brick.","full_desc":"Fort Livingston is a site in Grand Isle, Louisiana. The 1841 fort—Barataria’s last brick. Its accounts name only a collective — the soldiers. The dossier holds 2 reported claims, 2 legends, 1 documented fact and 1 named or described presence — documented record and retelling kept side by side. The site is open to visitors. For HauntHunt it is exactly the kind of file the archive exists for: a real place, a real record, and a story still being told.","address":null,"city":"Grand Isle","county":null,"state":"Louisiana","postal":null,"region":"South","lat":29.212857,"lon":-90.029115,"coord_kind":"CITY","status":"ACTIVE","access":"PUBLIC","access_notes":null,"ownership":null,"website":null,"phone":null,"year_built":null,"year_opened":null,"year_closed":null,"year_demolished":null,"designation":null,"current_use":"Historic site","research_notes":"LA2 batch; VERIFY task auto-queued.","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"MEDIUM","score":59.4,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.75,"identity_confidence":0.65,"historical_confidence":0.8,"source_quality":0.3999999999999999,"paranormal_claim_provenance":0.8,"coordinate_confidence":0,"current_access_confidence":0.7,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[{"id":3670,"type":"APPARITION","description":"Reported figures at the fort. Fort Livingston in Grand Isle, Louisiana carries the report the way old places do — as part of its identity. It survives as local folklore, which is to say it survives because people keep telling it. The report is preserved in sources like 'Fort Livingston'. The apparition is the file's anchor — every other report orbits it.","evidence":"LOCAL_FOLKLORE","evidence_label":"Local folklore","entity":null,"where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.8,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"Fort Livingston","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Livingston,_Louisiana","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]},{"id":3671,"type":"NAMED_GHOST_LEGEND","description":"The soldiers are reportedly seen. The reports at Fort Livingston are the site's second history — unofficial, unverified, and stubbornly retold. It's a documented legend: the telling is real, the contents remain folklore. Sources including 'Fort Livingston' keep the claim in circulation. The name gives the haunting a face, and the sightings give the name a job.","evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","evidence_label":"Documented legend","entity":"The soldiers","where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.8,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"Fort Livingston","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Livingston,_Louisiana","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]}],"history":[{"description":"The 1841 fort is documented. The site's documented history is the record the rest of the file stands on. The fact is historically verified — the part of the file that doesn't need hedging. 'Fort Livingston' documents the entry. The record keeps it — history, not lore. It remains the site's standing claim.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":"1841","date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"Fort Livingston","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Livingston,_Louisiana","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"legends":[{"name":null,"summary":"Reported figures at the fort. The reports at Fort Livingston are the site's second history — unofficial, unverified, and stubbornly retold. The claim is neighborhood knowledge — retold locally, verified nowhere. 'Fort Livingston' carries the account. The tale is the site's other archive — oral, embroidered, and outlasting the documents.","earliest":null,"evidence":"LOCAL_FOLKLORE","source":{"name":"Fort Livingston","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Livingston,_Louisiana","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}},{"name":null,"summary":"The soldiers are reportedly seen. Fort Livingston in Grand Isle, Louisiana carries the report the way old places do — as part of its identity. 'Fort Livingston' preserves the telling; the record keeps it filed where it belongs, as lore. The retelling is the record now — the legend metabolized the facts long ago.","earliest":null,"evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","source":{"name":"Fort Livingston","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Livingston,_Louisiana","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"entities":[{"name":"The soldiers","claimed_identity":"The soldiers","verified":null,"summary":"The soldiers are reportedly seen. Fort Livingston in Grand Isle, Louisiana carries the report the way old places do — as part of its identity. The file keeps The soldiers on the roster; the sightings keep the name alive. It remains the site's standing claim. The claim holds its place in the ledger. The claim holds its place in the ledger.","behavior":"The soldiers are reportedly seen.","area":null,"first_ref":null,"source":{"name":"Fort Livingston","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Livingston,_Louisiana","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"events":[],"investigations":[],"encounters":[],"media":[],"persons":[],"visitor":{"tour_availability":"Verify before visiting","notes":"Site access varies; verify before visiting.","last_verified_at":"2026-09-18 11:32:55","source":{"name":"HauntHunt generic access guidance","url":"https://haunthunt.com/about#access-guidance","publisher":"HauntHunt editorial","type":"DIRECTORY","authority":2}},"sources":[{"name":"Fort Livingston","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Livingston,_Louisiana","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}],"conflicts":[],"wiki":null,"counts":{"claims":2,"history":1,"legends":2,"entities":1,"sources":1}}