This small Iowa city is a Halloweentown on the Mississippi

The first time I walked through McGregor late at night in the fall, I kept stopping to look at the houses. Porch after porch had joined in: pumpkins on steps, skeletons in windows, entire yards given over to the season. On Main Street, scarecrows sat on park benches and wooden ravens perched on storefronts and signs. The whole town seemed to be playing along.

On a foggy morning, “the Pocket City” can look like it wandered out of a ghost story. Fog drifts from the Mississippi River and the uninhabited islands between Iowa and Wisconsin into town, until the sun rises and spills its warm, orange glow. 

If Iowa has a Halloweentown, this is it.

“McGregor just has its historic charm,” said Audrey Posten, vice president of the McGregor Marquette Chamber of Commerce and editor at the 170-year-old North Iowa Times. “It’s kind of eerie in a way, though, too. It lends itself to a haunted atmosphere, and people like to play that up.”

The morning fog “gives it that eerie vibe,” added photographer Candi Walker-Snyder, who co-hosts a podcast on Midwest true crime and ghost stories called Cornfield Coven out of McGregor.

Plenty of places hold a Halloween event during the fall season, but McGregor’s is especially immersive. Its nearly two-century-old Commercial Historic District looks the part, but the people make the difference. They don costumes and decorate early and generously, some displaying spooky imagery year-round.

The Halloween parade grew out of a practical decision. McGregor once held a parade over Labor Day weekend, Posten said, but participation had dwindled, and organizers had to invent a new theme each year. After the pandemic, a chamber director suggested moving the tradition to Halloween. The theme would take care of itself, and few nearby communities were putting on a celebration quite like the one McGregor envisioned.

The first year, there was just a parade. Organizers weren’t sure how it would go. 

“It kind of blew us away, actually, how many people showed up,” Posten said. 

The following year, they added children’s carnival games in the park and other entertainment. Over a thousand people flocked to town — more than the entire population of McGregor, which is currently just under 800 people. (The town experienced its population peak in 1870 at over 2,000 people.)

Walker-Snyder found herself giddy to put on a dinosaur costume and hand out candy. “I felt like a 5-year-old out there,” she said. “Everybody was invited to participate. It didn’t matter what your age was.” 

For her, that welcome is the heart of McGregor at Halloween. “It’s for everybody.”

The festivities bring people in from surrounding communities, Posten said, but it belongs to McGregor’s residents. They aren’t merely staging a spooky backdrop for tourists; they get to enjoy the party and reap prizes.

Not everyone wants witches and skeletons on their doorstep, and the organizers have made room for that. The town’s decorating contest welcomes displays of gourds, leaves and fall colors as well as explicit Halloween ones. As Walker-Snyder put it, the celebration is less about anything sinister than “kids dressing up and coming and having a good afternoon.” 

Still, McGregor has people who are happy to lean into the spooky side. A witches’ float, started by two local women, sends costumed participants down the river from Marquette to McGregor in canoes, kayaks and paddleboards. Walker-Snyder said participation has grown each year. 

There are also two Secret McGregor events at the historic McGregor Community Center, Oct. 24 and 30, highlighting “chilling history, haunts and tales of the Pocket City and beyond,” according to the chamber of commerce. Storytellers will discuss enough murders, fires, floods, cemetery lore and UFO sightings to fill 90 minutes. If you’re left wanting more, Walker-Snyder has recorded more than 30 hours of podcast episodes covering “true crime meets true weird” stories out of the Midwest with her Cornfield Coven co-host Jen.

Then there are the McGregor ghosts, which have transcended October altogether. Posten and friends began making short videos of people in white-sheet costumes visiting places around town to promote fall activities. The videos went over so well that the ghosts returned for a “shop small” campaign around Christmas. Posten posted a ghost image every day for 25 days, complete with a pun. They even made a Valentine’s Day installment at a riverside rental, with a “go with your boo” getaway theme.

The ghosts weren’t the only decorations to acquire lives of their own. Raven figures appeared around town, part of a “perched in the ports” idea that played on McGregor’s Mississippi River setting. More were made, and instead of vanishing after Halloween, they began changing clothes for other occasions: dressed as jesters for a Renaissance festival, and rock stars for concerts in the park. 

There’s a temptation to describe all this as a marketing campaign. Some of it is promotional, certainly, but there are too many locals, too many labors of love involved to chalk it up to a tourism gimmick. These are acts of affection for a place, disguised as Halloween foolishness.

That’s what makes McGregor Iowa’s Halloweentown. The scenery is convincing, but the people commit to the part.  

Upcoming events:

McGregor Fall Art Festival, Triangle Park, Saturday, Oct. 10, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

McGregor Halloween Parade and Festival, Saturday, Oct. 24, 10 a.m.-Noon

Secret McGregor, McGregor Community Center, Saturday, Oct. 24, 5 p.m. and Friday, Oct. 30, 6 p.m., $10-15

Spooky spots

These McGregor businesses go the extra mile for Halloween Fest.

1. Paper Moon, 206 A St

A witchy book store and gift shop, they are McGregor’s Halloween HQ all year long.

2. The Left Bank Shop and Gallery, 158 Main St

This art gallery will host wand-, potion- and broom-making classes during the festival.

3. By the Spoonful, 221 Main St

Along with a shot of espresso, this cafe will offer aura and angel card readings.

4. Pocket City Pub, 144 Main St

Stop in for Halloween- and fall-themed drinks, as well as the costume contest.

5. Backwoods Bar & Grill, 238 Main St

Another costume contest participant, along with…

6. Jade’s River Queen, 216 Main St

A historic tavern and live music venue where you can Monster Mash the night away. 

This article was originally published in Little Village’s October 2026 issue.