Whether or not you believe there are ghosts in our midst, you'll enjoy these 10 spirited tours that bank on the macabre aspects of the West's colorful history.
October brings the perfect opportunity to indulge in every type of thrill: Haunted houses, ghostly hotel stays, and ghost towns are all on-tap for a fright-tastic Halloween month. Ghost tours are on the table, too—especially across the West, where historic communities and landmark sites provide a wealth of spooky material to work with. While some are scarier than others (a few are in it for the history lesson), all these tours combine all the elements needed for a memorable ghost walk: great storytelling, charismatic guides, fascinating legends, and evocative settings.
Built by the heiress of the Winchester Repeating Arms (a.k.a “The Gun That Won the West”), this Victorian mansion is filled with oddities and alleged apparitions. Local lore says that Sarah Winchester, tormented by the ghosts of those fallen by her family’s guns, kept building on her 24,000 square-foot home with construction never ceasing from 1886 until the day she passed away in 1922. Today, visitors go to explore secret passageways and odd features, like a door that leads to a 15-foot drop, stairs that end at the ceiling, and a cabinet that opens to 30 other rooms. Daily tours include stories (and maybe sightings) of the employees who still wander the house. But this year’s “Unhinged” experience takes it a step further. The full-blown haunted house production is complete with access to rooms that have been off-limits and performers enacting sinister scenes between the missing people who never found their way out of the labyrinthine home.