It’s that time of year again: the dead come back to life, ghouls prowl the shadows, and every old house in the Mohawk Valley has a story to tell. This is our favorite season at Grand Colonial Bed and Breakfast, and this is our 2026 guide to the haunted attractions, ghost tours and Halloween nights within an easy drive of Herkimer. Every date below was checked in September 2026 against the organizer’s own listing; where a 2026 schedule has not been announced yet, we say so rather than guess.
Historic Four Corners Ghost Hunt, Herkimer
The most serious fright on the list is four minutes from our front door. Herkimer’s Historic Four Corners is a cluster of four buildings on the National and State Registers of Historic Places, including the 1834 Herkimer County Jail and the 1884 Suiter House Museum. The jail held Roxalana Druse, hanged in 1887 for the murder of her husband, and Chester Gillette, whose 1906 case became An American Tragedy. The Herkimer County Historical Society partners with Haunted Rooms America for an overnight investigation, and the 2025 edition sold out.
2026 date: Saturday, October 3, 8:00 PM to 2:00 AM. $129 per person, ages 18 and over (16 and 17 with an adult), snacks included. 400 N. Main Street, Herkimer. Book through Haunted Rooms America. If you would rather see the jail in daylight, the Historical Society runs regular museum tours; call (315) 866-6413.
Herkimer Home Ghost Tours, Little Falls
The General Herkimer Home State Historic Site sits on the Mohawk River fifteen minutes east of us, and once a year the Central New York Ghost Hunters lead lantern-lit tours through the mansion, the root cellar and the family cemetery. We have written before about whether the Herkimer Home is really haunted; this is the night to decide for yourself.
2026 date: not yet announced when we checked in September 2026. The tours run each September; call (315) 823-0398 for this year’s date. In 2025 they were $20 per person, in groups of fifteen, departing every half hour from 7:00 to 10:00 PM, with reservations by phone only. 200 State Route 169, Little Falls. Updates from the Central New York Ghost Hunters.
Beardslee Castle, Little Falls
Beardslee Castle is the region’s most famously haunted building, a 19th-century stone manor with a long list of reported apparitions, and it is twelve minutes from Grand Colonial. It is a restaurant first: dinner seatings Friday and Saturday from 5:00 to 8:30 PM and Sunday from 4:00 to 7:30 PM. There are no public ghost tours, but the castle’s autumn murder-mystery dinners are the next best thing.
2026 dates: Friday, September 25 (“Low Noon”), 7:00 PM, $65 per person including the show, dinner, tax and tip. Phone bookings only at (315) 823-3000. 123 Old State Road, Little Falls. See the castle’s events page.
Things That Go Bump in the Night, Cooperstown
Fenimore Farm & Country Village (the museum formerly known as The Farmers’ Museum) runs lantern-lit ghost tours through its 19th-century village on autumn weekend nights, thirty minutes south of us. The same grounds host Scarecrow Village from September 26 through November 1 and Trick or Treat at the Farm on October 24, so it works as a whole-family day out.
2026 dates: October 10, 16, 17, 23, 24 and 30. Tour slots run 5:30 to 8:00 PM. The 2026 ticket price had not been posted when we checked, so call (607) 547-1450 to confirm it. 5775 State Highway 80, Cooperstown. Check fenimorefarm.org before you go.
Cooperstown Candlelight Ghost Tours
A walking tour of Cooperstown’s haunted Main Street, led by candlelight from Pioneer Park at the corner of Main and Pioneer Streets. In September and October it runs five nights a week at 7:00 PM. $20 for adults, $10 for ages 6 to 12, free under 5. Call (607) 547-8070 to confirm the night you want. It is one of two Otsego County stops on the Haunted History Trail of New York State; the other is Hyde Hall on Otsego Lake, which offers private ghost tours all season for groups of up to ten ($200 for up to ten guests, $20 for each additional guest, (607) 547-5098 ext. 2).
Haunted Nights at Wood Creek Hollow, Rome
If what you want is a proper outdoor scare trail, the closest one running in 2026 is Wood Creek Hollow’s “Haunted Nights” in Rome, about fifty minutes west. Fridays and Saturdays from October 2 through October 30, ticket booth open 7:30 to 10:30 PM, $20 per guest, cash or card. 3986 Wood Creek Road, Rome. Tickets via HauntPay.
Crooked World Horror (formerly Crooked Descent)
Crooked World is not running this year. Its own site now says the haunt returns in fall 2027 at a permanent home in Central New York, with the location still to be announced. If it was on your list, the closest equivalent this October is Wood Creek Hollow.
Family-friendly, not frightening
For younger guests: the Utica Zoo’s Spooktacular Harvest Festival runs October 17 and 18, 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM (zoo admission plus $5 treat cards), with an adults-only Booze at the Zoo on October 24 from 5:00 to 8:00 PM. Fort Rickey Discovery Zoo in Rome runs its Fall Fun Festival on weekends, 10:00 to 4:00, $12 adults and $10 for children 2 to 15, plus tax. Call (315) 336-1930 for this year’s closing date.
Where to stay: Grand Colonial Bed and Breakfast
Every attraction above is between four minutes and fifty minutes from our door, and the two closest, the Herkimer jail and the Herkimer Home, are both night events that end late. Sleep in one of our four en-suite rooms in an 1890s home in Herkimer, have a full homemade breakfast the next morning, and drive the foliage roads to Cooperstown in daylight. All four rooms welcome dogs. Check availability and book direct, or call (315) 982-5004.
