Morrisonville

The label

Why Morrisonville is called a ghost town

Wikipedia's list of ghost towns in Louisiana includes Morrisonville, and so does KPEL's "16 Ghost Towns in Louisiana" (February 2018), which says the town was contaminated by the vinyl chloride plant next door and its residents were relocated in 1990. Acadiana Historical's "The Lost Town of Morrisonville" lists it as lost. The label is earned, though Morrisonville was not left to decay like most ghost towns. The chemical plant that grew up around it bought it out and cleared it.

History

Morrisonville then

Morrisonville was founded by formerly enslaved people from plantations near Plaquemine. Wikipedia dates it to the 1870s and Acadiana Historical to the end of the Civil War. The Dow Chemical marker at the site gives the church's founding instead: on March 13, 1889, the Rev. Robert Morrison established the Nazarene Baptist Church on Australia Point, a mile and a half north of the marker, and the community grew around it. LEAN, the Louisiana Environmental Action Network, places the first settlement on Manchac Point, a swampy spit of land surrounded by the Mississippi.

The river kept pushing the town back. After levee setbacks in 1921, residents moved to Graceville, named for the man who sold them the land, and in 1931 they moved again, to the Mayflower Plantation just inside the new federal levees. The photographer Richard Misrach, who documented the site, dates that move to 1932.

In 1958 Dow built a vinyl chloride plant on neighboring plantation land, and in 1959 it bought land from the town and grew to 1,400 acres. In the 1980s vinyl chloride was found in the groundwater under the plant and the town. In 1989, ahead of a federal report on toxic emissions, Dow announced it would buy every home and lot in Morrisonville. About twenty families held out at first, and residents who refused were told their property would be worthless. The community was moved in 1990 to Morrisonville Estates in Iberville Parish and Morrisonville Acres in West Baton Rouge Parish, and Wikipedia says the old town was abandoned by 1993.

1870s. Freed people from a plantation near Plaquemine found the community (Wikipedia; Acadiana Historical says the end of the Civil War).

Mar 13, 1889. The Rev. Robert Morrison founds the Nazarene Baptist Church, and Morrisonville grows around it.

1908. The USGS Baton Rouge sheet shows farm roads and scattered houses near the river bend.

1939. A USGS sheet marks the Nazarene Church on the road north of Union Plantation.

1921. Levee setbacks move residents to Graceville.

1931. The community moves again, to the Mayflower Plantation inside the new federal levees.

1958–1959. Dow builds a vinyl chloride plant next door, then buys land from the town and grows to 1,400 acres.

1963. The USGS Plaquemine sheet shows the plant's street grid and tanks reaching the edge of Morrisonville's houses.

1989. Dow announces it will buy all homes and land in Morrisonville.

1990. Residents are moved to Morrisonville Estates and Morrisonville Acres.

1993. The old town is abandoned.

May 20, 2012. A photo shows Dow's Morrisonville marker beside a chain-link fence on the plant's edge.

Today

What is there now

The townsite is inside the grounds of Dow's Plaquemine plant, between the plant and the Mississippi River levee along South River Road (LA 988). A Louisiana historical marker put up by The Dow Chemical Company–Louisiana Operations stands beside a chain-link fence on the plant's edge; the photo here, from May 20, 2012, shows it in mown grass with a road and the fence behind. It tells the town's story and ends: "Today, only the cemeteries remain." Acadiana Historical, updated in March 2026, likewise says only a historical marker and the Nazarene Baptist cemetery remain, and places the cemetery about 300 metres west of the map point.

Wikipedia says former residents are buried in the graveyard of the old Nazarene Baptist Church and that Dow built an open-sided wooden prayer shelter there for family members who come to visit the graves. A video posted on August 23, 2026, by a speaker who grew up in Morrisonville and works at the plant, says the cemetery remains on the original grounds, that you have to have permission to go in, and that only people listed in the church's records may now be buried there. Treat the cemeteries as closed without the plant's permission. The historic maps tell the rest. The 1953 Plaquemine sheet shows Morrisonville as rows of houses along the road between the levee and the Mayflower Plantation; by 1963 the plant's grid of streets and tanks has reached them; the 1998 sheet keeps the name and a cemetery symbol, with the houses gone and the plant shaded grey around them.

Historic maps

Morrisonville on USGS maps, 1908–1998

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the map point. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

19081:62,50019391:62,50019531:24,00019631:24,00019981:24,000

Map & directions

Getting there

Morrisonville's site is just north of Plaquemine, on the river side of the Dow plant along South River Road (LA 988). Both routes end on South River Road beside the plant. Stay outside the plant fence.

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL). Times assume dry roads.

Photos

Morrisonville in photos

The Morrisonville marker, put up by The Dow Chemical Company–Louisiana Operations, May 2012

Questions

Common questions

Is Morrisonville a ghost town?

It is a town that no longer exists. Dow Chemical bought out its residents in 1989 and 1990 and moved them to new subdivisions; by 1993 the site was empty. Only the cemeteries remain.

What is left of Morrisonville?

The cemeteries, including the graveyard of the Nazarene Baptist Church, on the plant grounds, with a prayer shelter Dow built for visiting families, and a historical marker on the plant's edge.

Where did the people of Morrisonville go?

To two new subdivisions named for the old town: Morrisonville Estates in Iberville Parish and Morrisonville Acres in West Baton Rouge Parish.

Can you visit Morrisonville?

You can see the marker from South River Road north of Plaquemine. The cemeteries are on plant property, and a video posted in August 2026 says you need permission to go in, so ask the plant first.

Nearby

Ghost towns and sites near Morrisonville

Straight-line distance to other mapped sites in our Louisiana index.

• Burtville5.4 mi E · East Baton Rouge
• Bayou Goula8.2 mi S · Iberville
• Anchorage11.1 mi N · West Baton Rouge
• Alma21.3 mi NW · Pointe Coupee
• Bayou Chene22.4 mi SW · St. Martin
• Anchor26.1 mi N · Pointe Coupee
• Parlange26.3 mi NW · Pointe Coupee
• Waterloo26.9 mi N · Pointe Coupee

Sources

Sources and credits

1. Wikipedia, "Morrisonville, Louisiana", retrieved October 2026: founding in the 1870s by freed slaves, Dow in 1958 and 1959, the 1,400 acres, the 1989 buyout and the holdouts, the 1990 relocation, abandonment by 1993, the cemeteries and the prayer shelter.
2. Rachel Blomquist, "The Lost Town of Morrisonville", Acadiana Historical, April 26, 2018, updated March 4, 2026: founded by freed slaves toward the end of the Civil War, Dow from 1958, the 1989 groundwater contamination, only the marker and the Nazarene Baptist cemetery remain, the cemetery coordinates.
3. Louisiana Environmental Action Network, "Morrisonville", read October 2026: Manchac Point, the 1931 move inside the federal levees beside the Mayflower Plantation, the vinyl chloride plant, the groundwater, the buyout and the two subdivisions.
4. Richard Misrach, "Community Remains, Former Morrisonville Settlement, Dow Chemical Corporation, Plaquemine, Louisiana" (1998), High Museum of Art: the levee displacement dated 1932, the buyout by 1989.
5. KPEL, "16 Ghost Towns in Louisiana", February 22, 2018: Morrisonville listed as a ghost town, the vinyl chloride contamination, relocation in 1990.
6. Wikipedia, "List of ghost towns in Louisiana", retrieved October 2026: Morrisonville listed.
7. Roy Luck, photo of the Morrisonville marker, Wikimedia Commons, taken May 20, 2012: the marker text (the 1889 church, Graceville in 1921, Mayflower Plantation in 1931, the 1990 relocation, only the cemeteries remain).
8. K. Smith, "Morrisonville, Louisiana", YouTube, posted August 23, 2026: a presentation by a former resident who works at the plant; the cemetery remains on the original grounds, permission is needed to go in, burial limited to people in the church records, about 250 residents affected by the buyout.
9. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026. Not field-checked.

Photo and map credits

• The Morrisonville marker, put up by The Dow Chemical Company–Louisiana Operations, May 2012: Roy Luck, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
• Area base map, topo and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
• Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Baton Rouge 1908, 1:62,500; Baton Rouge 1939, 1:62,500; Plaquemine 1953, 1:24,000; Plaquemine 1963, 1:24,000; Plaquemine 1998, 1:24,000.