Season 3 - Special
Opening Scene
Rachel arrives in Salem on October 28th dressed as a witch.
So does everyone else.
The streets are so packed she can barely move. The line for the Witch Museum stretches two blocks. Every store sells the same cauldron, the same broomstick, the same pointy hat. Her Airbnb cost $600 for the night, four times the normal rate.
Somewhere beneath her feet, nineteen people were hanged for something that never happened.
Origin
From the witch trials of 1692 to the world's most iconic Halloween destination
From the witch trials of 1692 to the world's most iconic Halloween destination
Back in January 1692, two young girls in Salem Village suddenly started having violent fits. The local doctor was completely stumped, so the Puritan ministers came up with their own explanation: witchcraft.
What came next was easily one of the darkest chapters in early American history. Almost 200 people were locked up under witch accusations, and nineteen of them were hanged. One poor guy, Giles Corey, was actually crushed to death under massive stones just because he refused to plead guilty or innocent. At least five others died in terrible jail conditions, and the whole madness dragged on for fourteen months.
Get this, it wasn't until July 2022 that Elizabeth Johnson Jr., the very last convicted Salem "witch" who was still on the books, was officially cleared by Massachusetts. That's 330 years in legal limbo, finally resolved thanks to a middle school civics class project.
For the longest time, Salem just wanted to bury the whole thing. The town did everything it could to distance itself from the trials, renaming streets and trying to move forward.
Then, somebody realized you could actually turn it into a tourist business instead.
The Phenomenon
Salem today is one of the most visited small cities in the entire US, not despite its dark history, but honestly, entirely because of it.
Just look at the numbers. Back in October 2024, over 1.04 million people flooded into Salem, which was an 8.6% bump from 2023. On Halloween Day alone, 87,351 visitors packed into a town that normally only has 45,000 locals. That was a massive 37% jump in a single day, and Halloween 2025 shot up by another 7.2% on top of that.
All those crowds mean tourism keeps around 1,200 local jobs going. Thanks to everyone stopping by, the downtown and waterfront areas boast a 98% storefront occupancy rate, the kind of stat most American cities would absolutely kill for.
At the end of the day, what they’re selling is simple: fear, folklore, and that eerie feeling of standing right where history went down. Salem selling access to an actual historical tragedy, and trust me, they charge top dollar for it.
During October, Airbnb rates rocket up to four or five times the usual average, and local hotels fill up months in advance. Tour companies run all year, but October is when the real cash rolls in.
