Rumors are that the village is haunted, though the general manager of Laurel Valley, Jerry McKee, disagrees. Laurel Valley Village is the site of the largest intact turn-of-the-century sugar plantation complex remaining in the southern United States. It includes the sugar mill built in 1845, schoolhouse, two-story boarding house, country store, blacksmith shop and more than 50 other support buildings, along with a museum.
McKee has worked at the plantation for 31 years. “I have probably spent more time walking around and inside the complex at night than anybody alive,” McKee said.
McKee said raccoons, possums, coyotes, deer and other creatures visit, but no ghosts. He said anytime you get a bunch of old buildings together, stories will be created and passed around.
Ruth Himel, one of many volunteer workers at Laurel Valley, also disagrees with the haunting stories. “If you’re a believer, you would believe all of that spooky stuff people tell you,” Himel said. “But I’m a skeptic. A ghost would have to appear right in front of me for me to believe it.”
Himel said a few workers, especially one who is very superstitious, claim that there are ghosts on the highway. Himel told them that they aren’t ghosts, but the mist coming up off of the bayou. “If that’s what they believe, you can’t make them not believe,” Himel said.
McKee said the remains of the village seem like a ghost town because of the abandoned buildings. Not all of the buildings are abandoned;. some are occupied.
Laurel Valley has cattle operation in addition to the sugar cane operation. Sometimes when they wean calves from the mother, they are corralled up close to the buildings. They will bawl and shriek. People have said they sound like human beings in distress.
People who believe the haunting stories attempt to experience it for themselves, trespassing on the property at night by crawling under the fence. If they are caught on the property after hours without permission, and especially if they enter the buildings, “we call the sheriff and we prosecute,” McKee said.
