{"id":1220,"slug":"st-louis-cemetery-no-1-new-orleans-louisiana","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 opened in 1789 — the oldest surviving cemetery in New Orleans, where the city's dead were laid in above-ground tombs because the water table wouldn't take them. The file's spine is the landscape itself: a city of white vaults outside the old ramparts, holding two centuries of the city's dead including the most famous grave in American folk religion.","The cemetery's tombs — the oven vaults, the society tombs, the crumbling plaster — are the file's architecture: a burial ground where the dead sit above the earth, the city of the dead mirroring the city of the living."]},{"heading":"Marie Laveau's tomb","paragraphs":["The file records the Marie Laveau haunting tradition — the Voodoo Queen's tomb being the cemetery's most visited grave, where offerings and the famous X marks accumulated until the markings were banned. The lore reports her presence in the cemetery — the priestess reportedly still in the ground where the faithful still leave offerings.","The X-mark tradition is the file's documented folklore — visitors marking the tomb for wishes, a practice the cemetery eventually prohibited, the ritual's banning being the record of the legend's power."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["St. Louis No. 1 is the archive's signature cemetery — America's most famous burial ground, holding the Voodoo Queen's tomb and two centuries of the above-ground dead. The documented cemetery is the record; Marie's presence is the most reported haunting in New Orleans.","A cemetery where the dead lie above the earth keeps its queen — the file's suggestion being that Marie Laveau's tomb is still a working shrine, wishes and all."]}],"name":"St. Louis Cemetery No. 1","aliases":[],"type":"CEMETERY","type_label":"Cemetery","cats":["HAUNTED_PLACE"],"groups":["cemeteries","hauntings"],"desc":"Cemetery in New Orleans; research record.","full_desc":"St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 is a cemetery in New Orleans, Louisiana. Cemetery in New Orleans; research record. HauntHunt files it with haunted places. Ask the file who haunts it and it answers: Marie Laveau. The dossier holds 1 reported claim, 1 legend and 1 named or described presence — all telling, no verified spine yet, and the file says so plainly. Access details are unverified — research before visiting.","address":null,"city":"New Orleans","county":null,"state":"Louisiana","postal":null,"region":"South","lat":30.05342,"lon":-89.934502,"coord_kind":"CITY","status":"UNKNOWN","access":"UNKNOWN","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":null,"research_notes":"Discovery pass. Precise location, historical chronology and current visitor conditions require independent enrichment. Confidence concerns provenance only.","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"LOW","score":43.1,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.75,"identity_confidence":0.65,"historical_confidence":0,"source_quality":0.6,"paranormal_claim_provenance":0.8,"coordinate_confidence":0,"current_access_confidence":0,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[{"id":501,"type":"HAUNTING","description":"Explore Louisiana records a Marie Laveau haunting tradition. A cemetery in New Orleans, Louisiana accumulating ghost reports is almost tautological — but this is the one the record kept. The story is documented as legend — recorded and retold, never verified as fact. Sources including 'Louisiana’s Haunted History' keep the claim in circulation. The haunting claim is now part of the site's identity, filed alongside the documented history.","evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","evidence_label":"Documented legend","entity":"Marie Laveau","where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.65,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"Louisiana’s Haunted History","url":"https://www.explorelouisiana.com/articles/haunted-louisiana-experiences","publisher":"Louisiana Office of Tourism","type":"TOURISM","authority":3},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]}],"history":[],"legends":[{"name":null,"summary":"Explore Louisiana records a Marie Laveau haunting tradition. The burial ground at New Orleans is exactly the setting the account needs — old graves, older grief, and a story that won't settle. It's a documented legend: the telling is real, the contents remain folklore. 'Louisiana’s Haunted History' carries the account. As folklore it's unkillable: the story is too good, and the place too fitting, to let go.","earliest":null,"evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","source":{"name":"Louisiana’s Haunted History","url":"https://www.explorelouisiana.com/articles/haunted-louisiana-experiences","publisher":"Louisiana Office of Tourism","type":"TOURISM","authority":3}}],"entities":[{"name":"Marie Laveau","claimed_identity":"Marie Laveau","verified":null,"summary":"Explore Louisiana records a Marie Laveau haunting tradition. The burial ground at New Orleans is exactly the setting the account needs — old graves, older grief, and a story that won't settle. The named presence is what turns a haunting into a household. The telling survives; the proof stays folklore.","behavior":"Explore Louisiana records a Marie Laveau haunting tradition.","area":null,"first_ref":null,"source":{"name":"Louisiana’s Haunted History","url":"https://www.explorelouisiana.com/articles/haunted-louisiana-experiences","publisher":"Louisiana Office of Tourism","type":"TOURISM","authority":3}}],"events":[],"investigations":[],"encounters":[],"media":[],"persons":[],"visitor":{"tour_availability":"Verify before visiting","notes":"Access details are unverified; research 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":"Louisiana’s Haunted History","url":"https://www.explorelouisiana.com/articles/haunted-louisiana-experiences","publisher":"Louisiana Office of Tourism","type":"TOURISM","authority":3}],"conflicts":[],"wiki":null,"counts":{"claims":1,"history":0,"legends":1,"entities":1,"sources":1}}