Unique Halloween Activities in St. Louis, Missouri
Pretty soon the radio stations and newspapers will be filled with ads for all of the commercial haunted houses in the area, and we have some fairly good ones too: Silo X and The Darkness are consistently ranked as some of the best by St. Louis Magazine and the St. Louis Post Dispatch. Silo X used to be located off of Interstate-44 near the Fenton exit. You could see it from the highway. The location later was turned into something even scarier: a paintball park. Silo X has now moved nearer to Fenton one mile south of Gravois on 141. It is now part of the Fear Festival, which includes four haunted houses for the price of one, as if you can’t get enough. I once had an employee at my restaurant that worked a temporary job at Silo X every year. His job was to jump out and scream at people. I could tell every year when he started because he got hoarser and hoarser until he lost his voice completely around the 31st of October. Silo’s sister haunted house; The Darkness is located in Soulard near the old farmer’s market. It would be my choice of the two because that whole area down there can get pretty scary, especially after dark.
If you have small children who might be a little young for a haunted house, there are a number of haunted hayrides and park tours in the area. And, of course, Six Flags near Eureka has its yearly Fright Fest extravaganza, but the rides out there are just too scary for me.
With a little effort and imagination, you can create your own Halloween agenda that is unique and fun and maybe even avoid some of the crowds:
Halloween parties are getting more and more popular each year and you can make yours out of the ordinary by adding some traditional food and drink or fortune telling with Tarot or a Quija board or pendulum. Some may argue that it’s dangerous to “play” around with these devices, but they are just plastic and paper. If your intention is just to have fun, then that’s what will happen.
If you want to create your own unique “real” haunted house tour, my suggestion would be to get started early as some of the locations book earlier and earlier. Taking a tour of some of the haunted houses and civil war era cemeteries over the river near Grafton, Illinois is interesting but fills up fast. A less-crowded alternative would be to check out some of the sites along the River Road and Pierre Marquette State Park. Delve into the legend of the Piasa Bird, a mythological creature who used to swoop down and devour the Indians who lived in that region.
Speaking of Indians, Cahokia Mounds State Park near Cahokia, Illinois is a very haunted place. You can learn all about the Mississippians, whose culture rivaled that of the Aztecs and Mayans, at the Interpretive Center and then climb up on Monk’s Mound where the ancient priests used to live. The best time to go is at sunset when you can watch the evening shadows move around in the dying light with a perfect view of the Gateway Arch. It’s a very magical place.
Another unlikely, but very magical and spiritual place to visit this time of year is the Shrine of the Black Madonna outside of Eureka, Missouri. Built piece by piece out of shells, concrete, and bits of glass by a Franciscan Monk over the course of his lifetime, the Shrine not only offers peace and serenity, but a beautiful view of the surrounding fall countryside.
Of course no jaunt around haunted St. Louis would be complete without a visit to the infamous Lemp Mansion near downtown St. Louis. The Lemp Mansion was listed as one of the ten most haunted places in America by Life magazine. Under the ownership of the Lemps, (the family that pretty much started beer brewing in St. Louis), the mansion was the site of several suicides during the family’s fall from grace. The house is now a restaurant and bed and breakfast. Avoid the commercial house and brewery tour around Halloween, and instead spend a night at the bed and breakfast. Speaking from experience, you’ll definitely encounter something out of the ordinary there.
Aside from the Lemp Mansion, there is probably no haunted house in St. Louis as famous as that of the former Henry Gehm house in Webster Groves. The exact location of this private house is kept secret, but it is somewhere in the 300 block of Plant Avenue. It is rumored that the house was the location of a number of tragedies and is currently home to several ghosts that the current owners verify. See if you can locate the house by going to your local new age store and buying a pair of dowsing rods and then slowly drive down the street with the rods pointed out of your car window. Something interesting might just happen.
Also in Webster Groves is the Edgewood Children’s Center. The center served as the St. Louis Protestant Orphan Asylum in 1855. It is said that there are a number of ghosts that manifest here, including a little girl who appears near an old cottonwood tree at dark. Ghostly children are also reported playing games on the lawn and there is a presence in the Rock House.
I have it on good authority from a Pagan friend of mine that there are strange happenings around dusk at one of the entrances to Laumeier Sculpture Park near I-270 and Watson Road. He wouldn’t tell me which entrance, so you’ll have to find out for yourself.
One of the most famous hauntings in St. Louis was turned into a book and a movie called The Exorcist. All that remains is some of the furniture, which is purported to be in a sealed room at St. Louis University, and that is off limits. A Schnucks supermarket now sits on the location of the old Alexian Brothers Hospital where the exorcism took place. The location is on the corner of Grand and Chippewa in south St. Louis. Maybe you could find some ectoplasm dripping off of the fruit in the produce section.
I think that one of the simplest and best ways to celebrate Halloween is to go back to the roots. Samhain is the Celtic New Year and a time when the spirit world is supposed to be closest to the physical one. It is also a time to honor those who have passed on and to look to the future. You can find any number of Samhain rituals on the Internet, but they should include a meal afterwards with an extra plate set out in honor of those who are missing but invited to be there in memory and spirit. Most times, the meal is then placed outside to be carried off to the Otherworld.
