The Harn Homestead is turning its 10 acres of pioneer history into a living storybook this fall, marking the 20th year of its Haunt the Harn tradition with a Tales & Trails theme on October 22. Families will wander past a Victorian-era house and a one-room schoolhouse to meet Dorothy, Alice, Peter Pan and Cinderella, follow a Sherlock Holmes mystery across the grounds, and cap the night with a live theatrical staging of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
According to The Journal Record, this year's event runs from 5 to 8 p.m. on October 22 and is co-hosted with Storyteller Theatre, blending the homestead's usual trick-or-treating through historic buildings with hands-on crafts, games and horse-drawn wagon rides. Kelly Frye said that bringing in Storyteller Theatre “adds an element that feels like a natural extension of the event and elevates the experience in a really meaningful and fun way,” according to the same report. Guests will also get to play Wonderland croquet and stop by Granny's Cottage as they move through the storybook zones.
Storyteller Theatre Joins Haunt the Harn
The Oklahoma City-based Storyteller Theatre OKC was founded by Justice, with Brenna as co-founder, and adapts classic literature for theatre.
The ticket structure has also shifted for this anniversary edition. Previous installments, including the October 2025 event, operated as free-entry outdoor gatherings with RSVP, but the 20th-anniversary format introduces paid admission alongside its expanded theatrical elements. This year, tickets cost $10 in advance or $15 at the door.
Land Tied to Oklahoma's Territorial Roots
The homestead at 1721 N. Lincoln Blvd. sits on ground claimed during the 1889 Land Run. William Fremont Harn was a federal lawyer appointed by the U.S. government to investigate fraudulent land claims and prosecute illegal “Sooners” in Oklahoma Territory, according to a historical account published on Medium. Harn went on to acquire 160 acres in what became Oklahoma City and later donated portions of that land for public development. Harn later sold 40 acres to the state for the site on which the Oklahoma State Capitol was built, placing the museum near the capital district.
Today the site preserves Oklahoma's territorial history on original land run property, and its buildings double as trick-or-treating stations during Haunt the Harn. The grounds include the 1904 Victorian-style Harn House, the 1897 Stoney Point one-room schoolhouse, the 1904 Shinn Barn, and the 1890 Shepherd House. The Stoney Point Schoolhouse itself was restored as part of a statewide preservation movement in the late 1980s and early 1990s that converted historic one-room schoolhouses across Oklahoma, including in Perry and Stillwater, into immersive educational facilities for elementary students.
More Than a Fall Festival
Outside of its October festivities, the Harn Homestead serves as a historical education site, with its buildings educating children and adults about territorial life. That educational mission gives Haunt the Harn a different flavor than some of Oklahoma City's other big autumn draws, such as the Myriad Botanical Gardens' Pumpkinville exhibition, which in 2024 featured more than 30,000 pumpkins, gourds, haystacks and mums collectively, as Hoodline has previously reported.
For families planning the trip, more information on Haunt the Harn is available at harnhomestead.com or by calling (405) 235-4058. Whether visitors come for the trick-or-treating, the storybook characters, or the Sleepy Hollow finale, the 20th-anniversary edition is shaping up as a bigger, more theatrical chapter for a homestead that has spent more than a century tied to Oklahoma City's founding story.
