On Saturday, Oct. 10, nearly everything worth doing around Park Rapids happens in daylight and wraps up by 5 p.m. Three weeks later, on Halloween, the best options start at 7. Across the rest of this month, the town's calendar moves from pumpkin fields at midmorning to campfires and a movie screen after dark. If you plan your October around that pattern, it's much easier to fit everything in.
Here's how it plays out, one weekend at a time.
The 10th Is the Daylight Peak
If you only free up one Saturday this month, make it Oct. 10. That one day holds more events than any other on the local calendar, and nearly all of them run during business hours.
Carters' Fall Festival, at 14766 119th Avenue, has been open on weekends since late September, and Oct. 10 and 11 is billed as its music weekend. The farm's hours run 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturdays and noon to 5 p.m. on Sundays. This year's theme is Vikings, brought back as a fan favorite. The corn maze ties into a wagon-ride drama and a woodland play with live actors. If you caught the farm's float in the July parade, you've already had a preview, since it showed off the Vikings theme months early.
Admission is $17 for adults and $15 for ages 4 to 12, and kids 3 and under get in free. A $27 season pass pays for itself on your second visit. Cards and Venmo carry a 3% processing fee. Beyond the maze, the farm has pumpkin painting, a corn pool, mini golf, slides, farm animals, duck races and food vendors.
The festival grew out of a tomato wagon. Russell and Maxine Carter moved to Park Rapids in 1954, and the next summer Russell started selling tomatoes from a roadside wagon. The first Pumpkin Day was held at the East 34 market in October 1994, and the festival moved out to the farm in 2010. Steven Carter has run it since 2021, with a new historical theme for the maze and wagon play each year.
There's plenty more going on that same Saturday:
- Long Lake Theater's "Harvest & Hibernate" festival runs 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Hubbard, with live music, a pumpkin-carving contest, pumpkin painting, crafters, hayrides, Halloween movies and a chili cook-off. Many activities are free. The kids' activity zone takes a $5 wristband, and chili tastings are $5. The first 100 kids with a wristband also get a scavenger hunt.
- Gorgeous Gourds at the Armory runs 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. It costs $75, and materials are included.
- Itasca State Park has a Junior Naturalist animal-tracks walk from 11 to 11:45 a.m. and an All About Beavers walk from 2 to 2:45 p.m. The beaver walk meets outside Forest Inn and heads toward Mary Lake.
There's one more option before the weekend. On Thursday, Oct. 8, the Park Rapids Area Library Friends book sale runs 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. and takes freewill donations. That evening, Karen Moyer of Leaf River Pottery teaches a Jack-o'-lantern light class from 5 to 7 p.m. The fee is $65, and you register through Community Education at 218-237-6600. On Sunday the 11th, the Heartland Concert Association brings ArcoStrum to the Area High School Auditorium. The duo plays violin and guitar and blends Chinese and Western instruments.
The Weekend of the 16th Shifts to Evenings
The next weekend, the main events start at night. The Armory has a free hip-hop show by 218$hit on Friday, Oct. 16, with doors at 6:30 p.m. and the show at 7. On Saturday the 17th, Corey Medina & Brothers play the same room. Doors open at 6 p.m., and tickets are $10 early or $15 at the door.
Daytime events are still around that weekend, they just get fewer. Carters' adds a Friday that weekend and is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday. The library's Fall Craft Exchange fills Saturday morning, from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Sunday, Oct. 18, is the last day of the season at Itasca's best-known dining room. The Douglas Lodge Restaurant is open Thursday and Friday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Oct. 18. After that date, overnight guests check in at the Jacob V. Brower Visitor Center rather than the Camping and Lodging Office. Douglas Lodge has served guests since 1905, so plan a weekday lunch on its porch before it closes for the season.
The park doesn't shut down when the restaurant does. The Brower Visitor Center is staffed year-round and open daily from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Its fireplace lounge has public Wi-Fi and large windows for watching birds. The Forest Inn, across the parking lot from Douglas Lodge, doubles as the park's winter warming house and equipment rental shop. The full Itasca schedule and seasonal updates are on the Minnesota DNR's Itasca State Park page.
Ghost Stories Start at 7:30 on the 23rd
By the fourth weekend, the main event doesn't begin until after dark. Long Lake Theater's third annual campfire ghost stories run Friday, Oct. 23, and Saturday, Oct. 24, at 7:30 p.m. and end with a haunted walk through the woods. The theater recommends it for teens and adults. Tickets are $15, or $20 for VIP. The theater strongly recommends reservations.
The theater sits at 12183 Beacon Road in Hubbard. It opened in June 2002 in the former Hubbard Alliance Church. In 2005 it added a second stage in an 1890s Methodist church that was moved to the site, and in 2008 it opened the 100-seat Landmark stage. Todd and Pamela Russell have owned it since August 2019. Ticket details are on Long Lake Theater's website.
Carters' last regular weekend falls on Oct. 24 and 25, running 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. On Monday the 26th, the Hubbard County Historical Society holds a free Park Rapids History Trail program from 1 to 3 p.m. in the Northwoods Bank Community Room.
Halloween Weekend Belongs to Main Avenue
The month ends downtown and, apart from trick-or-treating, almost entirely after 7 p.m.
| Date | Event | Where | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fri., Oct. 30 | Park Rapids Downtown Trick or Treat | Downtown Park Rapids | Not yet posted |
| Sat., Oct. 31 | Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, one night only | Park Theater, 107 Main Ave. S. | 7 to 9 p.m. |
| Sat., Oct. 31 | Flashlight maze and night wagon ride | Carters' farm, 14766 119th Ave. | 7 to 8:30 p.m. |
The Chamber lists Downtown Trick or Treat for Friday, Oct. 30, but hasn't posted a start time yet. Check the Chamber calendar before you head downtown.
On Halloween night, the Park Theater shows Psycho from 7 to 9 p.m. with general admission. The theater dates to 1939. Pam Wilson's family owned it from 1983 until Tim and Rachel Oberg bought it in 2022. The Wilsons split the original single screen into two in 1992 and into three in 2011.
If you haven't walked downtown since spring, the theater's block has changed. Over Memorial Day weekend, the Obergs opened the Lamphouse Cinema Lounge and Movie Merch next to the box office, in the storefront that used to be Tony's Barbershop. It sells theater T-shirts, VHS tapes, DVDs, movie posters and film books, and it has seating, snacks and mocktails for anyone who wants to talk about movies. The owners hand-painted the cracks in the ceiling in a style inspired by kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing pottery with metallic lacquer. "It's a love letter to this building, which has been around for 87 years," Rachel Oberg told the Park Rapids Enterprise in June. If you arrive early for Psycho, the Lamphouse is next door.
Out on the farm, Carters' ends its season that night with a flashlight maze and night wagon ride from 7 to 8:30 p.m. The same Vikings maze you walked in daylight on the 10th will feel different with only a flashlight.
The calendar keeps going after Halloween. Heartland Arts lists comedian C. Willi Myles at the Area High School Auditorium on Nov. 19 at 7 p.m. The Fat Cats play the Armory Arts & Events Center on Nov. 21, with doors at 6 p.m. and the show at 7. Event dates and times can change, so confirm with the Heartland Arts calendar or the venue before you go.
If you've spent October in the Vikings maze or by the campfire at Long Lake and started picturing a place with a little more room out this way, Kristine Walsh would love to hear what you have in mind. You can browse the Park Rapids neighborhood page anytime, or let's connect over coffee before the snow comes.
