Canfield Scaregrounds Haunted House and Hayride

Joel 2:30: “And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth:Blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness. And the moon into blood, …”

Legend of Blood Moon Farm

In the early 1800’s there weren’t facilities for the insane like the institutions we have today. In the larger cities they were committed to private areas of prisons where they wasted away until they died.

In the more rural areas such as the Mahoning Valley was at the time, the criminally insane were committed to prison farms where buildings were built to house them. These patients were ignored and kept locked up until they eventually wasted away and died.

The current Canfield Fairgrounds was such a farm in the early days. Inmates were subject to neglect and horrible treatment. Then, one day, they revolted and freed themselves. They attempted to escape under the guise of darkness, but a true blood moon could be seen glowing brightly in the sky. The “blood-filled moon” only fueled the escaped lunatics. It became known as the “Night of Blood” as these insane inmates embarked on a night of slaughter killing everyone at the prison including other inmates and even the animals on the farm. The carnage only ended when state police were called in and shot and killed 8 inmates of the farm.

The insane farm, all 350 acres of it, was closed and the grounds remained empty until the Canfield Fair was established in 1846. Although the gates were boarded up and the crime scene was erased (for the most part), stories abounded telling of the strange happenings that continued to occur on the farm. It is even rumored that a human scarecrow was found trussed up in a remote part of the property years later. Even the most normal, innocent folk are drawn to the fairgrounds every fall to this day.

And although 200 years have passed, and the evidence has long since washed away, Blood Moon Farm will return this harvest season for good. The locals have forever nicknamed the site of the “Night of Blood” the Canfield Scaregrounds and for good reason.