Despite being less than an hour away from Boston, few people have heard of Chester, a small New Hampshire town nestled between more well-known places like Derry, Manchester and Salem. I have lived in Chester my entire life, and their Halloween can’t be beat. Growing up, they used to have a headless horseman riding around, a haunted maze at what used to be a community college and one house where a man performed as the Phantom of the Opera. Although many of these traditions have stopped over the years, a new one put this small town on the map around 10 years ago.
The Chester Historical Society sells burlap faces and frames for people to create the scarecrows and scenes of their dreams. Some are historical, some represent the town, some are pop culture references and some are just downright spooky. There are roughly 1,000 of them now, and the Chester General Store (my former place of work!) hands out maps to tourists who come from all over. They were even recently featured on New Hampshire Chronicle!
This past weekend, while on a short visit home, I decided to take a drive with my brother to look at some of the scarecrows. We didn’t have to look very far- in fact, we found about 30 without straying from our normal drive into town! Here are some of my favorites:
A farmer driving a tractor by Hazelton Orchards
E.T.
A chef outside of the Chester General Store
The Tin Man in search of oil
Revolutionary War scarecrows
Jesters near the basketball court and soccer field
The Cat in the Hat driving kids to school in front of Chester Academy
If you would like to see more of Chester’s scarecrows, you can check out the Facebook page dedicated to them, the Village People of Chester, NH, or you can visit Chester before Halloween ends!