The Atlas Obscura Guide to Halloween Travel
There is a version of Halloween tourism that involves a man in a rubber mask jumping out from behind a plywood wall. It has its pleasures. It is not this. The places below are real. The things that happened in them are documented — in court records, in coroners' reports, in parish registers, in the diaries of people who were there. Some have ghost stories attached. The ghost stories are almost…
Halloween tourism takes on a chilling new dimension at the Atlas Obscura's curated collection of haunted sites. Spread across three continents, these locations offer a glimpse into history's darker side, each with its own stories of terror and mystery.
One such site is the Monroe, Connecticut house where Ed and Lorraine Warren's occult collection was once hidden away. Now open for private overnight stays, the property allows guests to explore the Warrens' haunted artifacts, including the infamous Amityville mirror and dolls. However, visitors must sign waivers acknowledging the potential for possession, levitation, and astral projection.
Later, the Warrens' collection will travel to Salem, Massachusetts, where a new museum showcases a thousand artifacts over thirteen exhibits. This temporary display may not last past December, but Salem in October promises a unique experience with the Annabelle doll in attendance.
For those seeking documented horror, Taunton State Hospital in Massachusetts offers a chilling history of patients' alleged hauntings. Meanwhile, the Outagamie County Asylum Cemetery in Wisconsin holds the bodies of 133 former patients, buried without names, creating an eerie atmosphere.
Some sites draw their fear from local folklore and beliefs, like the Greenbrier Ghost marker in West Virginia, commemorating Zona Heaster Shue's mother's testimony against her daughter's killer. In Taos, New Mexico, the Three Brujas are unmarked concrete graves believed to hold witches, while Springdale Cemetery in Peoria contains the Witch's Circle, a formation shrouded in local legend.
For a more traditional Halloween experience, Highgate Cemetery in London's Magnificent Seven cemeteries offers an overgrown yet fascinating display of history. Other notable graveyards include Ethel Allen's handmade tombstone in Florida, Joseph Augustus Zarelli's grave in Philadelphia, and the Spinning Headstone in Illinois, bearing the name of a man who went unidentified for decades.
Written by urgent.news from Atlas Obscura's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
