Oregon's Halloween Haunts

Oregon's Halloween Haunts
Halloween was a very spooky time indeed when I was growing up in Central Oregon. Hardly anyone bought a costume. Some mothers were clever with a needle and thread, but our mother insisted on us creating our own costume or mask. We labored for hours on our grocery sack masks, making sure we had the eyes in just the right spot so we could see out. Then we'd put on our long underwear, cords, flannel shirts, and down jacket. It snowed more times than not and we had to stay warm. Of course that always made us look like stiff mummies or scarecrows, but what the heck.

One Halloween, mom let us buy masks. I had a Devil mask that looked gold, but had red on the underside and was an eerie color under neighbors' porch lights. That next summer, my brother put the mask on upside down. Because he couldn't see with the eye holes down by his mouth, he ran into the sharp edge of my dresser with his noggin. We spent the next several hours getting him stitched up at the emergency room. No more store-bought masks. But since he had stitches from that and several other incidents, he could go as Frankenstein's monster. (Just kidding! The hair grew over all of them, eh Wolfie?).

Since parents don't just let their little (costumed) monsters roam the streets anymore, a number of alternatives have been popping up. In case you find yourself in our state for the festivities, here are some spooktacular things to do for Halloween in Oregon.


A Ghost Town Rises From the Dead!
Shaniko, Oregon was a bustling center of business at the turn of the 20th century. Situated in the heart of sheep country, Shaniko was the hub for a growing wool trade. Sadly, many of the boom towns of eastern Oregon dried up and blew away like desert tumbleweeds as business began clustering around the Columbia and Willamette Rivers to the north and west.

Shaniko just about dried up and blew away itself. The 25 residents of Shaniko have refurbished the old town and now it's an old west adventure. Take the family out to get locked up in the old jail, stay in the restored old west hotel, or enjoy an ice cream cone at the Shaniko Ice Cream Parlor. You'll be sure to scare up a good time!

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