In small town America, Halloween celebrations are next level. Here’s where you can take part in coffin races, Day of the Dead parades, and other morbidly quirky festivities.
Every October in tiny towns across the U.S., the spirit of Halloween gets turned up big time. Many communities proudly come together to transform their quaint main streets into a semblance of Jack Skellington’s haunted village in Nightmare Before Christmas. Bats and cobwebs dangle from awnings, grinning Jack-o’-lanterns sit on neighborhood porches, and costumed parades take over the streets.
Since the late 1800s, Americans have celebrated Halloween, which grew out of the Irish immigrant traditions of Samhain and All Saints’ Day, on October 31st. In the 1920s and 1930s, towns began encouraging structured activities, such as trick-or-treating, to deter mischievous teens from engaging in pranks and vandalism. Today, in many small US towns, Halloween has snowballed into a weeks-long schedule of festivities that draws in thousands of visitors.
Some destinations celebrate gruesome stories and historic events associated with their name, such as Sleepy Hollow’s Headless Horseman and Salem’s witch trials. Towns like Tombstone, Arizona, bring local flavor to Halloween traditions through Wild West ghost tours. Others show their passion for the holiday by racing coffins down a mountain or building a tower out of tens of thousands of pumpkins. Creepy and kooky, mysterious and spooky, these little American towns do All Hallows’ Eve right.
Stephen King stayed at Estes Park’s Stanley Hotel in the 1970s, which left such a spine-chilling impression that it inspired the setting of his infamous horror novel, The Shining. Halloween is the perfect time to make a pilgrimage to the 1909 colonial-style hotel, set against tall, gloomy mountains. Just like in the story and Stanley Kubrick film, the Stanley has long, carpeted hallways and an eerie wood-paneled ballroom, and is supposedly haunted by a chambermaid who lingers in room 217. Dress as the dead Grady twins for the annual Halloween Shining Ball held at the hotel. Be sure to visit other grisly sites around Estes Park, like the phantom-riddled Seven Keys Lodge and 1913 Historic Park Theatre, which hosts creepy films and performances.
Mesilla is a historic adobe town with a significant Mexican population that brings their Day of the Dead traditions to Halloween celebrations. Families flock to the Haunted House and Carnival held at the end of October and take part in three days of Día De Los Muertos celebrations at the town plaza. The free events include Aztec dance shows, live folk music, a Frida Kahlo costume contest, and altars stacked with marigolds and photos of ancestors. Don’t miss out on the candlelit procession to Mesilla Cemetery, a joyous parade of the living in sugar skull makeup and colorful costumes. For more ghost encounters, dine at Double Eagle, an antique and chandelier-filled 19th-century hacienda rumored to be haunted by star-crossed lovers who were murdered in the Carlotta Room.
In 1919, the town of Independence grew tired of youngsters disturbing the peace with pranks on October 31st, so they created Neewollah, an annual festival that is Halloween spelled backwards. Today, activities take place over ten days in October, making it one of the largest spooky jubilees in the Midwest. Neewollah’s calendar includes three parades (including an adults-only Doo Dah procession), a Queen Neelah beauty pageant (place a vote for a penny), and wholesome Midwestern fun like a chili cook-off and bandstand performers.
Step back in time to the joyous 1990s in St. Helens, which was the Pacific Northwest setting of the beloved Disney Channel movie Halloweentown. The historic riverfront town turns on the charm with Halloween attractions all October long, often with appearances from the original cast members. Look out for the retro yellow taxi driven by skeletal character Benny and join fans for the lighting of a giant grinning pumpkin just like in the film. A Howl-oween 5K dog walk, tarot card readings, tractor rides, haunted houses, and pumpkin carving contests round out the enchanting attractions.
A teeny town near Colorado Springs goes hard every year at Halloween with the Emma Crawford Coffin Races and Festival. The namesake woman was a resident who succumbed to tuberculosis in the late 1800s, and “came back from the dead” when her coffin slid down Red Mountain after heavy rainfall! Manitou Springs turned this macabre accident into a cause for celebration in 1995, holding silly races in which teams of costumed participants push homemade coffins through the streets. The town also holds a skeleton decorating contest and a parade of Emma Crawfords with a prize for the “Best Emma.”
In 1920, this Minnesotan town launched a Halloween children’s parade to deter pranksters. The turnout was so strong that the town declared itself the “Halloween Capital of the World.” Anoka remains one of the friendliest and most wholesome spots in the USA to celebrate the dark holiday. Snap photos with the orange jack-o’-lantern painted at a roundabout and pose with the giant metal top-hatted pumpkin in front of City Hall. Look for the spooktacular mural featuring classic movie monsters, and take part in entertainment ranging from movie nights to parades, bonfires, ghost walking tours, and a medallion hunt. For those looking for scares, the possibly paranormal Anoka State Hospital is worth a lurk.
New England’s fiery fall leaves make for an especially aesthetic Halloween in New Hampshire. At the annual Laconia Pumpkin Festival, which was founded in 1991, participants add tens of thousands of pumpkins to a 35-foot-tall ziggurat that looms over the town. At night, the orange tower blazes with flickering candles as if it were a cathedral honoring The Great Pumpkin. Laconia’s festival also encompasses live entertainment, food vendors, zombie walks, and other family-friendly fare.
Step into the pages of Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and see where the Headless Horseman galloped past tombstones with a pumpkin for a head. The Hudson Valley hamlet is filled with 18th-century Gothic manors that add to its haunted reputation. Leave roses at the grave of Van Tassel, the woman who inspired the heroine of Irving’s story, at Old Dutch Burying Ground. Vampire aficionados can stop by Lyndhurst Mansion to take in the set of the 1970s Dark Shadows films. During the last weeks of October, Sleepy Hollow is buzzing with haunted hayrides, dramatic performances, parades, a glass pumpkin patch showcase, and fantastical displays of thousands of hand-carved pumpkins at The Great Jack O’Lantern Blaze.
In Toms River, Halloween gets the Jersey Shore treatment with an enormous, rambunctious, blinged-out nighttime parade every October 31st. The Toms River Parade debuted in 1937 and grew over the years into the world’s second-largest Halloween procession (after NYC’s Village Parade). Today, over 100,000 spectators turn out for a seemingly endless stream of glitzy floats, marching bands, decorated fire trucks, and terrifying creatures of the night. The spectacle has become so popular that Toms River holds trick-or-treating on October 30th, allowing families to attend the Halloween parade. During the daytime, celebrants can check out spooky downtown window paintings and scout out sites from the 1979 Amityville Horror film, which was shot here.
Tillson Street spans only two blocks in Romeo, Michigan, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find a neighborhood with a greater love for Halloween. For the past 35 years, residents have lovingly transformed their mid-19th-century homes into Hollywood-worthy horror houses. Terror on Tillson Street is a true grassroots effort where Midwesterners come together to run a free and independent event, which draws in thousands of trick-or-treaters to each house. Drive over at the end of October to gawk at over-the-top decorations, from an eerie clown house to skeletons crawling out of graves on a front lawn.
The Wild West boomtown of Tombstone has turned into a ghost town, making it a chilling place to celebrate Halloween with a cowboy twist. Take a ghost tour to learn about the violent history of outlaws in the Old West. At O.K. Corral and Boothill Graveyard, you might hear the disembodied voices of 19th-century miners and gunslingers who met bloody ends. Get immersed in grisly reenactments at The Bird Cage Theatre, take part in a costume contest in a former bordello, or strut around as if you’re the main character in a spaghetti Western horror movie.
Salem, the site of the horrific 1692 witch trials, lives up to its notoriety as the ultimate Gothic destination. The quaint New England town is brimming with occult stores and witchy attractions year-round but turns the darkness up a notch every October. Salem’s Haunted Happenings include costume balls, ghost tours, broom decorating, and a Howl-O-Ween pet parade. See the film locations of Disney’s Hocus Pocus, admire Ouija boards from around the world at the Salem Witch Board Museum, and pose with movie monsters at Count Orlock’s Nightmare Gallery. Note that the town gets packed to the rafters around Halloween, so it’s best to make reservations far in advance and try to avoid weekends and peak hours.
