THE MYRTLES PLANTATION
St. Francisville, Louisiana
The Myrtles Plantation has been recognized as both historical and haunted. But what is it exactly that makes it so haunted? Well, the history may hold a key to the answer.
The Myrtles Plantation has been around for over two hundred years and is said to be one of the most haunted houses in the United States. Built in 1787 by General David Bradford, the Myrtles Plantation has seen its fair share of tragic events. It is rumored that several people have been killed on the property.
One of the most famous of the stories is that of Chloe, a house servant to Judge Clark Woodruff. Chloe was rumored to be the mistress of the judge and would often eavesdrop on his conversations. At one point, the judge had enough of Chloe’s spying and had her left earlobe cut off. She was then ordered to work in the kitchen. Chloe had a plan to get back into the family’s good graces. Before this could happen, she had to gain the trust of the judge back. Her plan was to make the family sick; she would care for them until they regained their health, and they would welcome her back into the house. She made a birthday cake for one of the children, adding poisonous oleander leaves to the recipe.
Her plan didn’t go as she had hoped: even after an antidote, the poison was too strong and killed the judge’s wife and two children. Shortly after her trial, Chloe was said to have been hung and thrown into the river. She is one of the more famous resident ghosts at the Myrtles and has even appeared in some photographs taken at the plantation.
Investigating the Myrtles Plantation:
A Birthday to Remember
I had been intrigued by the Myrtles since I was young and had always wanted to go there to investigate for the spirits that are said to haunt the home and the surrounding grounds. I made reservations at the Myrtles for Ashley and me for two nights. I didn’t think I would be spending my first night ever at the Myrtles on my birthday, but that ended up being the case. We arrived in St. Francisville shortly after five thirty in the evening on February 8, 2007, the day of my twenty-eighth birthday.
Pulling up to the Myrtles, I had felt a small rush of adrenaline run through me. I couldn’t believe that I was actually here. We pulled up to the property and parked the car. After picking up the keys as well as a few informative papers, we finally made our way into the house and up to our room for the first night.
I booked two separate rooms for the two nights we would be staying there. The first night we stayed in the Ruffin Sterling Room. This was a second-floor room with one queen-size bed and a few chairs within it. The style of the room was very antique-looking with a brilliant chandelier and decor throughout the room. I chose this room because it was the former children’s room, and I had heard stories about the children causing disturbances in the middle of the night. It would be a great chance to set up equipment for documentation of this. We moved all equipment and luggage into the room and set up the arrays in the main hallway and staircase. We were fortunate enough to have that side of the house to ourselves. We sat in the hallway with the lights out and arrays active. I placed an audio recorder on the cabinet sitting in the hallway. I proceeded to conduct communication experiments as normal. I had asked for any spirits in the building to make a noticeable sound or activate an array. We had no success with communication during the session. After almost an hour, we concluded the session and moved all the equipment back into the room.
Ashley was lying on the bed and I was standing next to her, talking about the rest of the night’s events. She was going through her camera bag.
“We won’t be able to get any more pictures once the battery to the camera’s gone, since I forgot the charger at home,” she said.
“That’s okay. We can get more pictures when we return.”
We conversed for about another fifteen minutes, and my eyes started to wonder around the bed. There something lying next to Ashley.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“The battery charger! It wasn’t there before—I took everything out of the bag, and it wasn’t in there,” she explained. I can’t say for sure where it came from, but I do know it appeared out of nowhere.
We then proceeded with another interactive session in our room. I placed the arrays around the room and put the Trifield meter in the center of the room. The lights were extinguished and the session began. We tried to contact Cornelia Gayle, the young daughter of Clark Woodruff who is said to have died from the poison in the birthday cake made by Chloe. I called to her several times and received no response. I then asked if any other children were present and if they could try to communicate with us. Again, we documented no response. We continued for an hour and then closed the investigation for the evening, going to sleep shortly thereafter.
The next day we ended up meeting Glen, the general manager of the Myrtles Plantation, who invited us to lunch. We introduced ourselves and had a friendly discussion over lunch about the Myrtles in general as well as the ghostly reports and legends of the plantation. He explained to us about the occurrences that take place from time to time and how he would often find a set of keys lying in front of the door to the gift shop and an empty house in the morning. Apparently, the guests get frightened during the night and leave without staying to check out. I had heard a similar story about a couple who was staying at the Myrtles when they were frightened by something in the house and made their way to their car. When they discovered they left their car keys in the room, they decided to sleep outside in the pouring rain. I don’t know if this is a true story or not, but it was one I came across while researching the plantation.
Glen continued to talk about the house, and we continued eating the delicious lunch. We thanked him for his time and the meal and then went on our way to another city for some sightseeing. We made a trip to Baton Rouge, grabbed dinner, and then returned to the Myrtles for the evening events. We booked two spots on the ghost tour of the house, which recounted the history of the Myrtles as well as the ghostly encounters that were reported. The tour took us through the entire house, which we did not have access to prior. We spoke briefly with the tour guide and made our way out of the main house and back into our new bedroom, the Fannie Williams Room. I was interested to see what type of activity we could encounter here.
This room was also located on the second floor. There was a queen bed and several dolls placed throughout the room. We had heard on the tour that the dolls in the room were of interest. Apparently, they would move by themselves and relocate at will. We placed arrays near the dolls as well as an audio recorder in the room in the hopes of capturing EVP. It was more difficult to do this with guests in the other rooms: there would be outside noise contamination from guests in adjacent rooms (yes, you can hear your neighbor).
I began asking questions to any spirits that may be in the room or in the area and invited them into our room. “Due to the noisiness of the floor, could you please move something or activate an array once you are in the room so we’ll know you’re here?” We did not get a response. I took it a step further and asked, “Will you move one of the dolls or throw one across the room?” Again, no response. We went through the normal proceedings for communication with no success.
Final Thoughts on the Myrtles Plantation
In conclusion, I would have to say that it is possible the Myrtles could be haunted, but we didn’t experience anything while we were there. I went through the audio and did not find any evidence of EVP. We didn’t receive any EMF spikes or changes. We could have been at the right place at the wrong time.
I was told by the general manager that the house is more active during thunderstorms, and a woman at the local McDonald’s said when it rained, you could see little girls dancing outside in the yard of the plantation about six inches above the ground. This would also concur with the story of the couple that slept outside during the rainstorm.
Perhaps the Myrtles Plantation is some sort of an atmospheric haunting that has some connection with the energy in the area on certain days. I didn’t pay to close attention to the moon phase or solar rays on that particular evening, but I don’t feel they had any relevance to the haunting.
I would like to go back to the Myrtles one day to explore its history and to try again to capture paranormal activity. It was a very friendly environment. I would suggest anyone try the Myrtles at least once. You might end up encountering something strange that you just can’t explain.