by Margaret Toal
Blood Road is the closest thing to a ghostly legend in Orange. Several people let me know you could travel down Childers Road off DuPont Drive and not see the blood. But on the way back, splatters of blood would show up.
Yank Peveto said the “blood” was red and splattered at different places along the road. If you got out of the car, you couldn’t see the red splatters and the roadway wasn’t damp. He said it’s true. Terri Jimerson Blanda is another person who saw the “blood.”
Janie Burns Melton said when she was a silly teenager the story was the blood came from Pirate Jean Lafitte and his pirates. Now that’s a good tale. Lafitte and his pirates hung around this area and “Blood Road” is off the Sabine River. However, I don’t think Lafitte died anywhere near Orange. Legends have continued for nearly 200 years about him.
Blood Road is part of the Port of Orange and now has a lot of security. It’s probably not a good place for kids to hang out. However, I may have to check out the road some night during a full moon. I’ll ask permission.
Speaking of the Port of Orange, the office building along the Sabine River is one of the most beautiful buildings in town. It was originally built b W.H. Stark for the headquarters of the Lutcher and Moore Lumber Company. It was made of concrete because fires had destroyed previous company offices. The paneling inside some of the rooms is made of the finest wood coming from the mill.
Persistent stories have been told through the years about the building being haunted. Workers there have told me about hearing footsteps on stairs when no one else is in the building.
Mike Louviere said workers there have heard the first floor rest room toilet flushing when no one else is in the building.
I looked up information about ghosts. However, I have never seen or read scientific proof of ghosts, or spirits of the dead. One source says that ghosts are often associated with water. Flushing toilet?
I have a strange story about water and bathrooms from one of my times working at the Orange Leader on Front Street at the corner of Second Street. In the mid-1990s, I was editing the weekly Opportunity Valley News. I got more work done when I was alone in the office; so I started going on Sunday afternoons.
The first time I was there on a Sunday afternoon, I went to the rest room and washed my hands like a civilized person. I wash my hands many times during a day and obviously have the habit of turning off the water faucet without thinking.
But this time, when I went back to the bathroom, the faucet was running. Not dripping, running. I thought to myself that I forgot to turn it off and made a conscious effort to turn it off.
When I went back again, the faucet was running. Now I’m curious. I turn it off tightly. I wait awhile and go back and check. The faucet is running.
On Monday morning, I asked people if they had ever seen anything strange in the office when it’s closed. The first thing women said was “the faucet in the women’s rest room.”
When I returned to work at the Leader in 2001, the faucet did not have problems. Now, the Leader building is demolished and the Lamar State College-Orange Allied Health Center is on the site.
When Lamar moved into the new building, I asked Gina Simar, now dean of allied sciences, if she had seen anything strange in the building. She told me nothing except the water running. However, when I asked her recently, she didn’t remember anything about the water.
Richard Corder worked for KOGT for decades. If my childhood had a voice to it, Richard Corder narrated because he was the person we listened to for ballgames and news. At one time, KOGT was in downtown on Fifth Street at the southwest corner of Main Street, which is now part of the Lutcher Theater Parking lot.
KOGT broadcasting studio was upstairs. I recall a record shop being in part of the street level facing Main during the years I was in high school.
Richard once told me that he was broadcasting along one night and saw a man wearing a suit standing outside the glass. When Richard got up to look, the man disappeared.
The most infamous murder in Orange’s history was in May 1935 when the minister of the First Baptist Church shot and killed Police Chief Ed O’Reilly. The shooting happened as O’Reilly was standing outside of Ingram’s Cafe, at the same corner where the KOGT studio was standing.
If you’ve heard any other spooky Orange County stories, let me know at backwhen1600@gmail.com.
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