Spooky in the City is an ongoing series on Spooky Little Halloween. In 2024, Miranda is taking you to a local haunt in her new home state of Minnesota, then showing you how to find similar spooky spots in your city, state, or country.
All October posts are part of the Countdown to Halloween!
I already know when I think back to October 2024, this night will be THE thing that made my spooky season.
Meet the Minneapolis Trolley Tour! Year-round, you can hop on one of their trolleys for a tour through the history of the city. They also offer a true crime tour.
But come October? You’ll want to check out the Candlelight Ghost Tour. I did this tour this past weekend, and I will absolutely be back.
As a newer resident of Minneapolis, the ride alone through some of the city’s oldest neighborhoods was stunning — but learning my new home’s haunted history was icing on the cake.
Let’s go ghost hunting, shall we?
You start/end at a historic mansion, 300 Clifton, which has its own haunted history. More on that in a moment.
300 Clifton includes some stunning gardens…and a bit of Halloween fun!
Not my best photo, but upon arriving I was given some official ghost hunting glasses (how pretty is that color on me?) and my very only candle to ward off spirits…or attract them.
Once it was tour time, we boarded the trolley and took off!
I’m going to tell you now my seat in the last row passenger side was THE best seat in the house. I had great views of all our stops, and it was the perfect spot to enjoy a cool October night as we drove around the city.
One thing Minneapolis is FULL of is gorgeous 100+ year old mansions, like the Van Dusen. My jaw dropped when we pulled around the corner here.
The haunting behind this location was my favorite story of the night too — but I won’t be sharing any of those, you’ll have to take the tour!
We stopped by the Pillsbury mansion — yes, as in your beloved fake-and-bake Halloween cookie Pillsbury. This family has a wild connection to the Titantic, and the story here was as exciting as it was heartbreaking.
Welcome to Oaklands on 9th, the first-ever apartment building in Minneapolis. Built in 1889, this place has seen a LOT of life — including four fires, years without a roof, and a curious death of a janitor.
To this day, it still functions as living space with fully-furnished apartments that can be rented month-to-month.
I wasn’t expecting it, but this was also the first spot where we could jump off the trolley and explore a bit. Very cool!
Did you know that the Mississippi River has a 48-acre inhabited island in downtown Minneapolis? I didn’t! And it has some fun haunted history that occurred at this home. I’m hoping to go back to Nicollet Island soon for a stroll around the island.
As you leave Nicollet Island, you can cross the Merriam Street Bridge which also has some notable hauntings, thanks to untimely deaths…and winter.
We were also able to jump off the trolley and walk down the bridge a bit to hear about its haunted history.
One of our final stops was the Kenwood Water Tower. Minneapolis has a few historic water towers like this that are absolutely stunning. But, like everything else on our tour, this one had a unique ghost story to it…including a neighbor that gives a little nod to the ghost come October.
After returning back to 300 Clifton, I got to go on the Gertrude’s After Hours tour through the mansion. We got to peek into a few areas of the house that are off-limits to overnight guests (yes, you can spend the night here!), which was super cool and included a few more scary stories and hauntings. I absolutely recommend this ticket upgrade.
The last place we stopped was the Carriage House speakeasy…and while I took a TON of photos because it was decked out for Halloween, I’m going to leave that spot a secret for you to enjoy on your own tour.
HOW TO FIND ghost tours NEAR YOU:
While ghost trolley tours aren’t a staple in every city, ghost tours in general are and you’d probably have a harder time not locating one near you.
If you need a little help with that, here are a few key phrases you can search with your city, state or country’s name to find a ghost tour near you:
ghost tour(s) + CITY/STATE/COUNTRY
haunted history tour + CITY/STATE/COUNTRY
true crime tour + CITY/STATE/COUNTRY
ghost tour(s) + NEAR ME
haunted history tour + NEAR ME
true crime tour + NEAR ME
Would you go on this ghost tour?
Let me know in the comments. And seriously — if you’re in the Twin Cities, I cannot recommend this highly enough as the PERFECT October activity.
