{"id":2355,"slug":"laura-plantation-vacherie-louisiana","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["In the 1870s, a young professor named Alcée Fortier came to a Creole plantation on the west bank of the Mississippi in St. James Parish and wrote down the stories being told in its quarters — Compère Lapin, the rabbit trickster whose West African tales Fortier would publish and Joel Chandler Harris would turn into Br'er Rabbit. The folktales that became some of America's most retold lore were collected, in the record's telling, at Laura Plantation.","It is a fittingly documentary sort of fame for a site whose haunting file is unusually modest — a plantation whose archive runs deeper than its ghost report, and whose best-known story is itself about stories: who told them, who wrote them down, and who got the credit."]},{"heading":"The documented record","paragraphs":["Guillaume Duparc, a French naval veteran of the American Revolution, acquired the property in 1804, paying off the Acadian refugee families Spain had settled there in 1785; the raised Creole big house — brick basement story, briquette-entre-poteaux upper floor — went up in 1804–05. The plantation began with seventeen enslaved workers drawn from five recorded African ethnicities; by the Civil War the number was 186, and four of the 1840s quarters cabins still stand.","The site's claim on the archive is literal: Laura Locoul Gore's own memoirs and roughly 5,000 pages of French National Archives documents underpin the interpretation, and the plantation made the National Register in 1993 as one of only fifteen Louisiana complexes with this many surviving structures. Workers lived in the cabins until 1977 — recent enough that the file's 'historic' layer nearly touches living memory."]},{"heading":"What witnesses file","paragraphs":["The reports, such as they are, run conventional: a presence in the main house, figures associated with the family in the parlors, and activity reported around the quarters cabins — the buildings where the site's heaviest documented history concentrates. No single named apparition anchors the file, which is itself unusual for a River Road plantation.","Local lore occasionally attaches the founding generations — the Duparcs, the Locouls — to the house, but the tellings stay general. A site this well documented makes an instructive case: five thousand pages of archive produce context faster than they produce ghosts."]},{"heading":"What the quarters hold","paragraphs":["The four surviving slave cabins — built in the 1840s, occupied until 1977 — are where the site's documented weight actually sits, and where the reports cluster accordingly. The plantation's own interpretive practice is worth noting in an archive of hauntings: Laura Plantation leads with the archive — Duparc's will, Laura Locoul's memories, the Fortier fieldwork — rather than with the apparitions. The ghost reports exist in local lore and visitor accounts, attached to the main house and the cabins, but the institution itself keeps its attention on the recoverable dead. In a file cabinet full of unverifiable sightings, it is the rare dossier where the paper record outranks the folklore by design."]},{"heading":"What remains","paragraphs":["Laura Plantation runs its tours on the documented record — the Creole family saga, the quarters cabins, the Fortier collection — and the haunting reports ride along as footnote rather than headline attraction. The file's own balance is the point of the entry: a plantation where the stories were deemed important enough to write down in the 1870s now keeps its ghost reports the same way — recorded, attributed where they can be, and filed in their proper place beneath the names the archive actually holds."]}],"name":"Laura Plantation","aliases":[],"type":"PLANTATION","type_label":"Plantation","cats":["LOCAL_FOLKLORE","HAUNTED_PLACE","PLANTATION","HISTORIC_ESTATE","CREOLE"],"groups":["dark-history","hauntings","legends"],"desc":"The Creole plantation where Br’er Rabbit’s tales were collected.","full_desc":"A plantation in Vacherie, Louisiana, Laura Plantation is filed here for what the record attaches to it. The Creole plantation where Br’er Rabbit’s tales were collected. The file’s recurring figure goes by a name, not a description: the lacoul family. The dossier holds 2 reported claims, 2 legends and 2 documented facts, with the verified spine filed separately from the lore. The site is open to visitors.","address":null,"city":"Vacherie","county":null,"state":"Louisiana","postal":null,"region":"South","lat":30.007471,"lon":-90.711935,"coord_kind":"CITY","status":"HISTORIC_SITE","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":"Southern Gothic 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":1790,"type":"APPARITION","description":"Laura Plantation reports a presence in the main house and the cabins — the claims attached to the Creole plantation where the Compère Lapin (Br'er Rabbit) tales were first recorded. The cabins carry the heavier claim: the site's documented slave quarters hold the site's documented memory. The cabins hold the documented memory.","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":"Laura Plantation","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Plantation","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]},{"id":3644,"type":"NAMED_GHOST_LEGEND","description":"Laura Plantation lore reports the family still seen in the house — the presences attached to the Creole plantation's founding generations. The claims split between the main house's parlors and the cabins out back, matching the site's two documented worlds: the family's and the enslaved community's. The two worlds keep their dead.","evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","evidence_label":"Documented legend","entity":"The Lacoul family","where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.8,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"Laura Plantation","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Plantation","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]}],"history":[{"description":"Built 1805; the Br’er Rabbit tales were collected here in the 1870s. Laura Plantation's history is documented rather than told — this entry is part of that spine. The fact is historically verified — the part of the file that doesn't need hedging. The detail is preserved in 'Laura Plantation'. The date is part of the site's documented spine.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":"1805","date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"Laura Plantation","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Plantation","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}},{"description":"The 1805 plantation is documented. A house in Vacherie, Louisiana with this much documented history gives the dossier substance underneath the lore. This belongs to the verified spine of the entry, the layer everything else is measured against. 'Laura Plantation' documents the entry. The detail belongs to the verified spine of the entry.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":"1805","date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"Laura Plantation","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Plantation","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"legends":[{"name":null,"summary":"Reported a presence in the main house and the cabins. Laura Plantation wears the claim the way old houses do: visibly, and without comment. Local lore carries the account; no documentation has ever caught up with it. The account appears in 'Laura Plantation'. The retelling is the record now — the legend metabolized the facts long ago.","earliest":null,"evidence":"LOCAL_FOLKLORE","source":{"name":"Laura Plantation","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Plantation","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}},{"name":null,"summary":"The family is reportedly seen. Laura Plantation in Vacherie, Louisiana is the kind of old house where every sound eventually gets a name. The account has a collector's pedigree — written down as legend, which is the most honest status it can hold. Sources including 'Laura Plantation' keep the claim in circulation. The tale is the site's other archive — oral, embroidered, and outlasting the documents.","earliest":null,"evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","source":{"name":"Laura Plantation","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Plantation","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"entities":[{"name":"The Lacoul family","claimed_identity":"The Lacoul family","verified":null,"summary":"The family is reportedly seen. The lore files them collectively as the Lacoul family. Laura Plantation wears the claim the way old houses do: visibly, and without comment. The report is preserved in sources like 'Laura Plantation'. The file keeps The Lacoul family on the roster; the sightings keep the name alive.","behavior":"The family is reportedly seen.","area":null,"first_ref":null,"source":{"name":"Laura Plantation","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Plantation","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":"Laura Plantation","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Plantation","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}],"conflicts":[{"field_name":"place_type","existing_value":"PLANTATION","incoming_value":"HOUSE","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."},{"field_name":"short_description","existing_value":"The Creole plantation where Br’er Rabbit’s tales were collected.","incoming_value":"The Creole plantation—where Br’er Rabbit was told.","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."},{"field_name":"full_description","existing_value":"Laura Plantation is an 1805 Creole plantation at Vacherie where the Compair Lapin (Br’er Rabbit) tales were first collected in the 1870s. A museum interpreting the Creole family and the enslaved community; lore includes a presence in the main house and the slave-quarter cabins.","incoming_value":"Laura is the 1805 St. James Parish plantation—the Creole manor where the documented Compair-Lacoul family history and the West African tales are preserved.","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."},{"field_name":"current_status","existing_value":"HISTORIC_SITE","incoming_value":"ACTIVE","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."},{"field_name":"research_notes","existing_value":"Southern Gothic batch; VERIFY task auto-queued.","incoming_value":"LA2 batch; VERIFY task auto-queued.","notes":"Preserve both source-backed variants; no automatic overwrite."}],"wiki":{"title":"Laura Plantation","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Plantation","desc":"Historic house in Louisiana, United States","extract":"Laura Plantation is a restored historic Louisiana Creole plantation on the west bank of the Mississippi River in Vacherie, Louisiana. Formerly known as Habitation Duparc, it is significant for its early 19th-century Créole-style raised big house and several surviving outbuildings, including four slave cabins. It is one of only 15 plantation complexes in Louisiana with this many complete structures. Due to its historical importance, the plantation is on the National Register of Historic Places. The site, in St. James Parish, Louisiana, is also included on the Louisiana African American Heritage Trail.\nAlcée Fortier, who later became Professor of Romance Languages and folklore at Tulane Univer","img":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b4/Laura_Plantation_House_Front.JPG/960px-Laura_Plantation_House_Front.JPG?utm_source=en.wikipedia.org&utm_campaign=api&utm_content=thumbnail","score":104,"lat":30.00873,"lon":-90.725328},"counts":{"claims":2,"history":2,"legends":2,"entities":1,"sources":1}}