If you waited until mid-October to look up the Tombstone Trail this year, you missed it by a month. The Logan County Arts League held its third annual walk through Riverside Cemetery on Saturday, Sept. 12, the Sterling Journal-Advocate reported. Tours ran every 20 minutes from 6:30 to 7:10 p.m. and cost $10 for adults and $5 for kids. In 2025, the same walk was held on Oct. 18.
As of Oct. 12, the biggest Halloween events from the Arts League are already over, and the 19 days left before Halloween come down to a short list of confirmed dates. The one that matters most for families falls on a Friday.
Last year's calendar against this year's
The Arts League, which goes by LOCAL, runs much of Sterling's fall arts programming and serves as the governing board of the Sterling Creative District. Its two signature fall events both happened before October was half over.
| Event | 2025 date | 2026 date | Status as of Oct. 12 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tombstone Trail, Riverside Cemetery | Sat., Oct. 18 | Sat., Sept. 12 | Over |
| Zombie Crawl, Courthouse Square | Sat., Oct. 4 | Sat., Oct. 3 | Over |
| Baseggio haunted maze | Oct. 11, 18 and 25 | No 2026 schedule published | Unconfirmed |
| "An Inquisition of Vampires" murder mystery | Fri., Oct. 24 | No 2026 date found | Unconfirmed |
| Corn Maze Mania at Baseggio | Fri., Oct. 17 | No 2026 date found | Unconfirmed |
The Zombie Crawl stayed in about the same spot. This year it filled Courthouse Square at 315 Main St. on Oct. 3, with costume sign-in at 4 p.m., pumpkin painting from 4 to 5, "Thriller" at 5 and a movie at 6:30. The Tombstone Trail is the event that moved, and with it went the only cemetery-history night on the calendar.
The bottom three rows in the table are the real gaps. Last year the Baseggio farm ran a $15 haunted maze on three Saturday nights in October, from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m., and its season ran through the weekend of Oct. 25. Sterling Creatives put on its vampire murder mystery at 129 N. Third St. on Oct. 24, 2025. So far, no 2026 dates have been published for any of these. They may still be announced, but they aren't on the calendar yet.
What's confirmed between now and Halloween
Here's what the Journal-Advocate's weekly listings, the Logan County Chamber and the Overland Trail Museum have actually scheduled, in date order:
- Thursday, Oct. 15, 4:30 p.m. Craft Club at Sterling Public Library makes Ghost Garland from scrap fabric. You need to register by calling 970-522-2023.
- Saturday, Oct. 17, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Sunday, Oct. 18, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Baseggio Family Pumpkin Patch, 16695 C.R. 20.5, Atwood. Admission and attractions are $5 per person for ages 4 and up. Pumpkins are $0.45 a pound for standard and $0.55 for specialty.
- Wednesday, Oct. 21. Last day to vote in the Chamber's Scarecrow Contest.
- Friday, Oct. 23. Scarecrow winners are announced.
- Wednesday, Oct. 28, 10:30 a.m. History Café at the Overland Trail Museum, with "Creepy" Colorado Tales. Seating is limited, and the museum asks for reservations by phone.
- Friday, Oct. 30, 3 to 5 p.m. Trick or Treat on Main Street in downtown Sterling.
If you're planning pumpkins, the first Saturday on that list matters more than it looks. Baseggio's 2026 dates have appeared in the Journal-Advocate for two weekends so far, Oct. 3–4 and Oct. 17–18. Last year the farm stayed open through Oct. 25, but nothing published yet confirms a 2026 weekend after the 18th. If Halloween pumpkins are on your list, Oct. 17–18 is the confirmed option. Anything later depends on the farm announcing more dates.
That same Saturday morning, the Logan County Farmer's Market runs from 8 to 11 a.m. in the Bomgaars parking lot. The library's beginner cross-stitch class follows at 2 p.m., and supplies are provided. Put together with the drive to Atwood, Oct. 17 is the fullest day of the season that's still ahead.
The scarecrows are the one thing that lasts all month
The Chamber's Scarecrow Contest is the only Halloween event that covers the whole month. Scarecrows are on display from Oct. 1 through Oct. 31. According to the Journal-Advocate's Oct. 7 story, this year's 10 entries include Halloween Minions, Dolly Parton, a Skeleton Posse and a haz-mat worker.
The 10 entrants are:
- Girl Scout Troops of Sterling, at Pioneer Park Lodge
- GOAL High School
- Hidden Treasures Vault
- Hospice of the Plains
- Steiner SILS Day Program
- Sterling Federal Credit Union
- Sterling Regional MedCenter
- Tiny Humans Thrift Boutique
- Sweetly Vintage
- Northeastern Junior College Fire/EMS Programs, in front of the Applied Technology Campus near Hagen Street
The full list with locations and the voting page are on the Logan County Chamber of Commerce website. With the cemetery walk already over, a loop past the scarecrows is the main free Halloween outing left in town. Voting closes Oct. 21, nine days from today, so the loop works better before then than after.
If you're already driving the west side, the Sculpture on Loan lots where the S-curve meets West Main make an easy extra stop. LOCAL and the city's Parks, Library and Recreation Department added a small pavilion, paved parking and a walking path there. Two new pieces were unveiled Sept. 5: Edward Lininger's untitled sculpture on the east side of Division and "Sibling" by Sterling High School art teacher Hee Hun Cho on the west side. Cho told the Journal-Advocate that his piece was inspired by his sister, who lives in South Korea:
"It was kind of a commemorative piece where I wanted to express entanglement/the harmony of being a sibling."
The sculptures stay up after the scarecrows come down.
Downtown trick-or-treat is Friday, Oct. 30
The Chamber's 2026 listing for Trick or Treat on Main Street says Friday, Oct. 30, from 3 to 5 p.m. in downtown Sterling. Questions go to the Chamber at 970-522-5070.
A second listing on the Chamber calendar, called "Trick or Treat Street," still shows Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026. Its time field reads "3:00 PM - 3:00 PM," and the event details underneath still say "October 31, 2013" with a 3-to-5 p.m. window at "Downtown Sterling's Businesses." It looks like an old recurring entry that rolled forward into this year. The Oct. 30 listing is the one built for 2026.
Halloween lands on a Saturday in 2026, so it would be natural to expect downtown trick-or-treating on the 31st. The current listing puts it the day before, on a Friday afternoon from 3 to 5. Families planning around school pickup or work schedules should know that two-hour window. The listing doesn't name participating businesses, a route or a costume contest, so the Chamber is the place to ask about those.
What may still be announced
The Journal-Advocate's weekly "Things to do" roundup published today only covers through Oct. 18. Listings for the last two weeks of October haven't come out yet. Those roundups are where a 2026 haunted maze, a Corn Maze Mania date or a return of the vampire mystery would most likely show up first. Last year, Corn Maze Mania had an Oct. 14 application deadline ahead of its Oct. 17 event, so if it comes back on a similar schedule, the notice could arrive on short notice.
For now, the confirmed calendar is short. There's a library craft night on the 15th, the pumpkin patch on the 17th and 18th, scarecrow voting through the 21st, ghost stories at the Overland Trail Museum on the 28th, and downtown trick-or-treating on Friday the 30th from 3 to 5 p.m.
Adriana and the team at Best Life Realty follow the community calendar across Morgan and Logan counties the same way you do, because local dates like these are part of everyday life here. If you hear about a haunted maze date or a Halloween event we missed, let us know and we'll pass it along, in English or Spanish. Let's Connect.
