Visitors looking for an authentic old-fashioned atmosphere to celebrate the season can make their way to Barkerville Historic Town and Park for their annual Ghostly Halloween set for Oct. 26 and 27.
The busy summer season has passed and what's left is eerily quiet streets of the town stuck in the 1800s.
"It's very family oriented during the day so there's lots of stuff for the little ones," Jillian Merrick, Barkerville's manager of preservation and presentation, said.
Barkerville offers a haunted house featuring monster-free spookiness for the first half of the day and then jump-scares later in the afternoon. There's family friendly events like trick or treating, a scavenger hunt, face painting and a bonfire while for those who dare can partake in the spooky town tour and something a little different.
"New this year is the Ultimate Zombie Apocalypse Challenge," Merrick said. "It's basically a giant game of tag with a few more complicated rules and the whole goal is to stay alive and get what you need to survive the zombie apocalypse and there's prizes for that."
It's an event more geared towards teens and adults.
The game is set for 3 to 4:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday afternoon and tickets for $10 each have to be purchased online in advance. Deadline for ticket sales is Oct. 23 on Barkerville's Facebook page.
"There's a switch over at our haunted house, so in the morning we call it monster-free so it's more appropriate for younger children and for those who might have some sensory challenges, so there's not any jump scares in the haunted house for the first couple of hours and then we switch so there's live ghouls who provide a bit more scare."
There's also a new spooky town tour.
"That should be pretty fun and we've got trick or treating and the photo studio will be taking Halloween portraits," Merrick said. "It's special to come out to Barkerville during this time of year but it's nice to have a couple of extra activities."
Several of the merchants at Barkerville will be open so there will be places to get warm and have a hot meal.
Saturday and Sunday Barkerville will be open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The ghostly scavenger hunt and face painting (for a fee) is from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The bonfire is on from noon to 4 p.m., the monster-free haunted house goes from noon to 2 p.m., while the super-scary haunted house goes from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. and the spooky town tour is from 1 to 2 p.m.
Admission to Barkerville is $5 and children five and under are free.
