Spooky Season In Terre Haure

 Gather around for the most enchanting, eerie and utterly spooktacular time of the year! Terre Haute has activities for families of all ages including haunted houses, tours and much more to get your fix in during “spooky season.”

The most startling place to start your Halloween festivities is at the Shattered Nightmares Haunted House on Lafayette Avenue. This award-winning site has haunted tours every weekend in October and the first weekend of November. For over ten years, a local family has taken their love for haunted houses and created a fun activity for all ages that is sure to send chills up your spine.

Wanting to learn about some local lore? Vigo County Historical Museum is a low-cost Terre Haute site that is known for having paranormal activity. The stairwell is a hotspot for orbs, and it has been reported that the upstairs is closed off because spectators have seen a person rocking the crib while visiting. Rumor has it, that if the figure looks directly at you, you are being hunted down by the murderer, Edward Flanders, of the family who lived in the house. The visitors were given metallic crosses to prevent the haunts. The museum also has an exhibit dedicated to local haunted legends like the faceless nun from Saint Mary-of-the-Woods and many more spooky tales.

Highland Lawn Cemetery is the home of a bulldog named Stiffy Green and his owner, John Heinl, who passed away in 1921. Stiffy was devastated when his owner died, refusing to leave his side. Stiffy continuously ran to Highland Lawn Cemetery to sit inside Heinl’s mausoleum and growl at anyone who may be a threat until he died on the steps outside the mausoleum, where he was also buried. Many come to the cemetery each Halloween to see the Heinl and Stiffy ghosts. You can even visit a replica of Heinl’s mausoleum and Stiffy Green at the Vigo County Historical Museum.

But that’s not the only tale from Highland Lawn Cemetary. A long-distance call made from inside a mausoleum is a tall tale in Terre Haute. The story dates to the 1800s. A man placed a telephone, rocking chair and whiskey in his future mausoleum at the cemetery. Many years later after his death, his wife was found dead in their home beside a telephone that was off the hook. Reports state that a startling call had caused her to have a heart attack. When the wife was placed next to her husband, the phone inside beside him was off the hook. Was the heart attack produced by a call from her deceased husband? As you walk around the Highland Lawn Cemetery, listen carefully for a telephone off the hook.

You hear about Bigfoot sightings often, but did you know Bigfoot walks throughout Terre Haute? There have been 35 reported sightings of a giant ape-like creature with gigantic footprints as early as the 1970s. In 1980, there were 34 claimed sightings. Watch out, you never know what you could run into during October as we creep closer to winter in the Wabash Valley!

Be careful as you attend these spooktacular spots and be sure to stick with a family member or friend. For more information on the best spooky spots in Terre Haute, visit  terrehaute.com