Tis the season for jack-o-lanterns on the front porch, skeletons dancing across manicured lawns, and kids of all ages donning their spookiest wardrobe choices. This year, consider raising the bar on your Halloween experiences with these intriguing yet somewhat terrifying experiences across the country.
New Orleans: Step Into The Mortuary – If You Dare
Located at the very dead end of Canal Street in New Orleans, horrors await at The Mortuary. Built in 1872, New Orleans’ famed Grand Victorian Mansion, known as The Mortuary, celebrates its 152nd anniversary this year. Themed for 2024 as a Hellection, brave guests are encouraged to “Choose Thy Fate!”
This former funeral parlor and crematorium sits among more than a million graves within a one-square-mile radius. Between 1930 and 2003, over 20,000 funerals took place within its walls. Imagine all the blood and bodily fluids of the dead swirling into a drain in the embalming room deep in the basement catacombs.
A New Orleans Halloween tradition, if this self-guided tour of darkness doesn’t just get the adrenaline-pumping, nothing will. It also induces nail-biting, screaming, and nightmares. Enter if you dare. And don’t be surprised if you encounter the works of the twisted mortician frightfully known as Ravencroft. www.themortuary.net
The Ghosts of Charleston
With much of the city built atop gravesites, it’s no wonder Charleston, South Carolina earned the designation as one of the most haunted cities in the South. Reports of ghost sightings are commonplace here, and there are plenty of tours that highlight Charleston’s dark side. I booked the Cemetery and Dungeon experience with Bulldog Tours. The guide led us through the historic streets, cemeteries, back alleys, and churches as we took in all the ghostly details. Chilling stories of sightings, haunted houses, voodoo, and Low Country superstitions kept things spooky along the way.
The tour concludes with a goosebump-inducing visit to the Provost Dungeon in the Old Exchange Building, which housed hundreds of prisoners during the Revolutionary War. Jailed for either treason or sedition, many of them spent their final days in this dreadful dungeon.
The faint of heart may want to skip this tour and opt for the Ghosts and Spirits tour. At least the liquid spirits will help you ward off the supernatural ones. www.bulldogtours.com/tours/ghost
The Missouri State Penitentiary
A hundred years older than Alcatraz and infinitely creepier, the Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City housed some of the most notorious criminals in US history including Martin Luther King, Jr’s assassin, James Earl Ray. Tour guides lead you through Housing Unit 1, A-Hall—the oldest building still standing—where you’ll see the art left in the cells by former inmates. You’ll also learn about the history of the site and all the strange and unusual events that have occurred within the prison’s foreboding walls.
Particularly disturbing, the tours include a visit to the Dungeon Cells used for solitary confinement and a visit to the Gas Chamber where 40 inmates took their last breaths. You’re welcome to sit in the gas chamber during your visit if you dare. You do you!
If ghost hunting is on your must-do list, join one of the paranormal tours and learn how to use paranormal equipment to recognize paranormal activity. For those with nerves of steel, overnight paranormal investigations should shake you up a bit. Bring a flashlight to illuminate those dark corners. www.missouripentours.com/tours/
The Haunted Road and a Haunted Field of Screams
Legendary stories of burnings, hangings, and deadly roadside accidents haunt an 11-mile stretch of Riverside Road in Thornton, Colorado. Here, lost souls and decrepit creatures continue to roam—and so can you. Scare the hell out of yourself and your passengers with a drive on the state’s most haunted road that regularly shows up as a hot spot for ghost hunters. Legend tells us the hauntings began after a man went mad burning down his home with his family trapped inside. Only the iron gates of the former mansion remain–now dreadfully known as the Gates to Hell.
If the drive down this horrifying road doesn’t make your skin crawl enough, venturing into the 40-acre corn fields just off the road for the Haunted Field of Screams attraction. Your journey begins with a hayride to the Gates of Hell. Then, collect more goosebumps as you wander through multiple haunted houses. Keep an eye on any scarecrows you encounter. Reports reveal evil gatherers seeking their next victims often appear in disguise. Will you survive the Gates to Hell? www.hauntedfieldofscreams.com/