Throw a rock here, especially in the historic areas such as the French Quarter, and you might not actually hit a ghost, but your rock will probably whiz right through one.

Dr. Larry Montz, a parapsychologist who has spent years investigating New Orleans and other cities worldwide, calls it "the most haunted city in America, per square inch, no doubt. ... It's had so many fires, wars, diseases, it's really not all that surprising."

Coincidence?

I spent a week doing my own digging, concentrating on hotels and restaurants. And although I started off a bit skeptically, I found that almost everywhere I went, something happened. They were little things that could be attributed to chance or coincidence: a broken camera, pens that suddenly wouldn't work or gushed ink onto my hands, a toilet that started spewing water onto my feet, an inexplicable flickering light. But added up, they gave me pause.

My first stop was Muriel's Jackson Square, where Pierre Antoine Lepardi Jourdan lived in the late 1700s and early 1800s. In 1814, Jourdan wagered the home in a poker game and lost. Rather than vacate, he hanged himself from an archway on the second floor, in what is now called the Seance Room.

Reluctant staff

Waiter Jack Isleib says it's always colder in the Seance Room than anywhere else in the restaurant. "We also have had broken glass and messes in the upstairs bar area behind a locked gate," he notes. "We have a lot of staff who don't want to open up here in the mornings. They're afraid of what they'll find."

A second-floor hallway also holds ghostly residue, possibly connected to the fire that consumed an earlier building on this property. Gold leaf covers the walls, marred by what looks like dirty, clawing fingerprints. Isleib says that no matter how often the walls are cleaned or re-covered, the fingerprints reappear.

At the Monteleone Hotel, on Royal Street near Canal, sales-marketing director Andrea Thornton says the doors to the hotel's casual restaurant, Le Cafe, often open and close themselves after having been locked for the afternoon.

Mysterious occurences

"One day I was standing there talking to our PR person. She had her back to the doors, and I was facing them, and all of a sudden she said, 'Andrea, what's wrong? You just turned white.' I had just seen the doors slowly open, and then slowly close. And I know they were locked."

When Dr. Montz's International Society for Paranormal Research investigated the property in 2003, Thornton says, "Those doors absolutely would not stay closed. We almost had to hold them closed. It was like some sort of force was keeping them open."

Another haunted area is the Carousel Lounge, where two customers who were with Thornton told her they saw a waiter in turn-of-the-century garb. "I didn't see him. I guess some people are more susceptible," she says. "I do know they hadn't been drinking," she adds.

Ghostly tales

At Arnaud's Restaurant on Bienville, maitre d' James Homrighausen says he's heard many ghostly tales, having worked there on and off since 1985. An accountant doing inventory once encountered an apparently thirsty spirit. The worker would turn his head for a moment, and turn it back to find a half-empty glass. "He finally left and came back with someone else to finish the job. He didn't want to be here alone," Homrighausen says.

Founder Arnaud Cazenave and his daughter, Germaine, are the most frequently spotted specters here. Germaine is shown in mannequin form in an upstairs Mardi Gras display. Seeing the figure, one man recognized her as the upset woman he had just talked to in another room.

Spooked visitors

A room with faux mirrors on the wallpaper has spooked more than one visitor. "Our night manager swears she sees faces in them," Homrighausen says. "She'll do anything to avoid going up there."

Homrighausen has had at least one personal encounter. He once felt someone push him when no one was there.

Pushing must be popular phantom sport. When I was photographing the haunted balcony at Napoleon House Bar & Cafe, where a Civil War-era soldier sometimes appears, I felt a shove and my camera dropped, breaking the lens. No one was behind me when I turned.

Another popular hangout for wandering spirits is Antoine's Restaurant, where Dr. Montz once encountered a spectral young woman in period dress in a wine cellar. The restaurant's Mystery Room, where illegal liquor was served during Prohibition, also gets its share of ghostly activity.

Bourbon Orleans

One of the most famous haunted hotels is the Bourbon Orleans, where a convent, orphanage, and historic ballroom and theater have all stood, going back to the early 1800s. Jamal Sabla, a businessman who once had a shop across the street from the Bourbon O, as it's called, said he was closing around 2 a.m. one night and noticed a curtain moving in the second-floor ballroom. "I could see someone looking at me, and I waved and they waved back," Sabla says.

A short time later, a security guard came over from the hotel to chat during a break. When Sabla asked who was in the ballroom, the guard replied, "The ballroom's sealed, so no one can get in there right now."