Cordova, Illinois may be a small town, but it offers some big scares for thriller seekers. Home to numerous famously haunted locales, Cordova has earned itself a spooky reputation over the years.
If you find yourself in Cordova and you’re looking to get your fright on, be sure to visit these top haunted houses and attraction spots for 2024:
Asylum of Mad Dreams Scream Park
Location | 2202 290th St, Cordova, IL 61242 |
Season | Opens September 23rd, 2024 |
Website | https://www.thescarefactor.com/haunted-house-directory/illinois/asylum-of-mad-dreams-scream-park/ |
Easily one of the most terrifying haunted attractions in Cordova, the Asylum of Mad Dreams Scream Park truly lives up to its spine-chilling name. This intense, multi-attraction haunted event transports visitors to the grounds of a sinister asylum, home to dozens of lurking lunatics and shrieking specters.
The park features an array of horrifying attractions, including the 3D Disorient Express haunted house, the chilling Buried Alive coffin ride experience, and the panic-inducing Maze of Darkness. Brave guests can also try their luck at zombie paintball, carnival games, concession stands, and more.
Plan to spend a full evening getting spooked at the Asylum of Mad Dreams Scream Park. With so many different attractions and haunted houses, you’re sure to leave feeling frightened to your very core.
The Others Haunted House
Location | 2500 3rd Ave, Cordova, IL 61242 |
Season | Opens October 7th, 2024 |
Website | https://www.explorelocalil.com/listing/the-others/12947/ |
If you’re searching for a truly terrifying haunted house in Cordova, look no further than The Others. This intense, movie studio-quality haunted attraction is located right in downtown Cordova, making for a scream-filled night out.
The Others offers an extrasensory, multi-themed haunted experience across 20,000 square feet of horror. Brave visitors will come face-to-face with ominous scenes and props from horror movies and TV shows like Stranger Things, IT, The Conjuring, and more. Over 30 live actors lurk throughout the haunt, ready to prey on your deepest fears.
Plan for at least 30-45 minutes to fully experience everything this top-rated haunted house has to offer. Just don’t be surprised if you leave The Others feeling like you’ve stepped straight out of your worst nightmare!
Deady Acres Haunted Corn Maze
Location | 2204 290th St, Cordova, IL 61242 |
Season | Opens September 16th, 2024 |
Website | https://www.deadlyacres.com/ |
If you enjoy getting lost and turned around all while being stalked by lurking ghouls, be sure to pay a visit to Deady Acres Haunted Corn Maze. Sprawling over 10 acres of farmland right on the edge of Cordova, this enormous corn maze attraction is overrun by a horde of ominous beings waiting for their next victim.
Navigate through endless rows of towering corn stalks as you encounter jumping out scares, disturbing displays, and even a hidden Ouija board deep within the maze. Plan to spend 30-60 minutes finding your way through this massive, architecturally intricate corn labyrinth. Just don’t be surprised if you feel the hairs rising on the back of your neck thanks to the spine-chilling sights and sounds of Deady Acres.
Cordova Haunted Jail Tour at Old City Hall
Location | 200 School St, Cordova, IL 61242 |
Season | Year-round tours available |
Website | https://www.hauntedrooms.com/illinois/cordova/haunted-places/cordova-jail |
For a truly bone-chilling experience, be sure to take a haunted tour of the old city hall and former jail site in downtown Cordova. Rumored to be crawling with unsettled spirits and strange paranormal activity, this 100-year-old complex certainly seems to live up to its haunted reputation.
Tours take brave visitors through the creepy corridors and former jail cells of the building. Along the way, experienced guides share the location’s dark history of trauma, violence, and even death that once occurred here. Ghost hunters can keep an eye out for any signs of lingering souls still serving out their eternal sentence.
Just don’t be shocked if you capture the image of an unexplained shadowy figure lurking in the darkness or hear the faint echoes of footsteps when nobody is around!
Cordova Public Library Hauntings Tour
Location | 107 Florence St, Cordova, IL 61242 |
Season | Year-round tours available |
Website | https://www.hauntedrooms.com/illinois/cordova/haunted-places/cordova-public-library |
You might not expect a small town library to be the site of paranormal happenings, but the Cordova Public Library certainly seems to belie this assumption. Many spooky tales and personal accounts over the years suggest this historic library may be home to some ghostly bookworms that never checked out.
Take a late-night tour of the library grounds and listen in as guides recount the myriad reports of objects moving on their own, strange noises emanating from empty rooms, and even shadowy figures spotted wandering the stacks when the library is closed. Who knows, you might even catch a glimpse of the ghost of a former librarian still vigilantly patrolling the shelves and ensuring strict quiet for all patrons, dead or alive!
McCauley Mansion Historic Haunts Tour
Location | 100 Cottage Grove, Cordova, IL 61242 |
Season | Year-round tours available |
Website | https://www.hauntedrooms.com/illinois/cordova/haunted-places/mccauley-mansion |
History and hauntings
buffet together in Cordova’s lavish McCauley Mansion. This sprawling Second Empire Victorian estate certainly looks the part of a haunted house, featuring towering heights, lush architectural details, and imposing turrets that loom over the perfectly manicured grounds.
But beyond just looks, McCauley Mansion also seems to deliver on some seriously spooky occurrences. Visitors consistently share accounts of seeing the ghostly visage of a woman dressed in white peering out from the second-story windows when the mansion is believed empty. Others hear the faint notes of an organ or piano being played at odd hours, though no musician can be found.
Be sure to take a guided tour of this Cordova landmark to soak in all its history and haunted tales. Just don’t be shocked if you feel a sudden, unexplained chill in the air or catch something shifting in your peripheral vision. The mansion’s longtime spirit residents are always seeking new guests!
Phantom Farms Haunted Hayride
Location | 15391 Barber Rd, Cordova, IL 61242 |
Season | Opens September 30th, 2024 |
Website | https://www.phantomfarms.org/ |
Round out your tour of Cordova’s most haunted attractions with a bone-rattling hayride through Phantom Farms’ sprawling, 35-acre estate. As you journey by tractor and wagon deep into the farm property, be prepared for all manner of ghosts, ghouls, zombies, and sinister surprises jumping out from the darkness.
With so much ground to cover, no two rides along the haunted hay trail are ever quite the same. But visitors consistently describe the attraction as an intense, adrenaline-filled experience teeming with chilling sights and sounds. Just don’t stray too far off the path, lest you encounter the wrong kind of harvest spirits lurking in the shadows.
Cordova: A Town Rich in Hauntings
As you can see, the small town of Cordova, Illinois harbors no shortage of terrifying haunted attractions to get your scare on. From haunted houses, corn mazes, and historic haunt walking tours to petrifying hay rides after dark, thrill-seekers are sure to find exactly the kind of bone-chilling experience they’re looking for.
So if you’re hoping to encounter restless spirits, spine-tingling tales, or simply top-notch Halloween fun this season, be sure to plan an evening escaping to one of Cordova’s famously spooky local landmarks. Just don’t let the slow easygoing nature of this small town by day fool you – once night falls, a truly terrifying world of haunts emerges after dark!