There’s more to Kentucky than just pasture land and famous bourbon. When Halloween rolls around, the state celebrates with haunted houses, ghost walks, and ‘scream parks’. Here are the highlights that are not to be missed…
1. Spirit Strolls To The Graveyard At Shaker Village
creativecommons.org/cwwycoff1
The Spirits Stroll through the graveyard at Shaker Village in Harrodsburg is an annual event that attracts visitors from all around the country.
The Shakers Village is run by a historical preservation society that’s dedicated to preserving Shaker traditions. Year-round, travellers visit to enjoy a peaceful getaway in the countryside, but around autumn the area takes on a rather chilling air.
This is when they start their special Spirit Strolls through the local Shaker graveyard. Guests stroll down the lantern lit graveyard with a local guide. A graveyard at night is creepy enough, but when the guide starts telling horror stories about some of the folks buried in the graveyard, it really amps things up to the next level.
2. Field Of Horror
The Field of Horror is an event that happens every year on Halloween weekend at Devine's Corn Maze and Pumpkin Patch in Harrodsburg. On every other weekend during the fall season, Devine's hosts a slew of family-friendly activities like hay rides and pumpkin picking. However, on the weekend of Halloween, the whole affair changes.
All the classic horror villains, including the Children of the Corn, Jason, Freddy and Pinhead, band together and take to haunting the corn maze. Adults try to solve the corn maze with the constant threat of running into one of these unfriendly horror legends around every corner. The Field of Horror even has a strict no flashlight policy, so you have little light to work with.
3. Waverly Hill Haunted Sanatorium
creativecommons.org/Conspiracy of Happiness
There are few buildings creepier than those with the word ‘Sanatorium’ in their name. The Waverly Hill Haunted Sanatorium in Louisville was opened in 1910 as a hospital for patients with tuberculosis. The building is considered to be one of the most haunted places in Kentucky, and has been showcased on television shows like The Scariest Places on Earth, Ghost Hunters and Ghost Adventures.
While for most of the year the building is locked down tight, but on Halloween, the Waverly Hills Sanatorium opens up to raise funds for the Crusade for Children charity.
4. Mammoth Cave, Mammoth Cave National Park
creativecommons.org/Garden State Hiker
Mammoth Cave is arguably the largest haunted place in the world. Nestled within the hills of southwest Kentucky, current maps document around 650 kilometres of underground passageways. However, who knows how many more are lurking down there.
People first began to use the cave around 12,000 years ago. The natives used the massive cave system as a place to bury their dead.
During the 1800s, Mammoth Cave became a coveted source for saltpeter, which was used in gunpowder. Stories of eerie sounds, strange lights and apparitions have abounded since Mammoth Cave was a mine.
5. Sleepy Hollow Road
While Sleepy Hollow is officially a New York-based legend, Louisville has its own Sleepy Hallow legends.
It’s said that a black hearse can appear from nowhere on Sleepy Hallow Road that speeds up to run cars off the road into a nine-metre ravine below.
The second legend is that crying and screams can be heard under what used to be a covered bridge, which is now known as the Cry-Baby Bridge. As the legend goes that women in the area used to take their sick or unwanted children to the bridge and drop them off of it.
The final legend says that there are a group of Satanists who conduct their ritual sacrifices at Devil's Point, which is located along Sleepy Hallow Road.
The Louisville Ghost Hunters Society has conducted investigations into all of these legends, but has yet to find any conclusive evidence. However, locals still swear by them.