You’ve probably heard the radio ads or seen the TV spots for Michigan’s haunted houses. But what you might not know is that Michigan owns the title as the best state in the nation for haunted attractions. From spooky hayrides to terror-filled forests to your standard (or not so standard) haunted houses, October brings out the best of the state. What’s truly surprising, though, is what fuels Michigan’s love for these haunted attractions.

You’ve probably heard the radio ads or seen the TV spots for Michigan’s haunted houses. But what you might not know is that Michigan owns the title as the best state in the nation for haunted attractions. From spooky hayrides to terror-filled forests to your standard (or not so standard) haunted houses, October brings out the best of the state. What’s truly surprising, though, is what fuels Michigan’s love for these haunted attractions.

This kind of thing would never happen in California.

Halloween is the time of year when, as a child, you get to carve a pumpkin, dress up as the cute little vampire and have your mother hold your hand in chilly weather as your neighbors — some sketchier than others — drop miniature lumps of teeth-rotting gold into your pillowcase. And that’s pretty much the entire holiday. A little flash, hopefully no snow, maybe a few pumpkins and possibly a razorblade that one of your neighbors stashed in a Snickers bar. All in good fun, really, until you get too old and the same neighbors refuse to give you any candy and tell you to just go home.

This is where haunted houses come in handy. They capitalize on the adult portions of Halloween: fear and terror. And there might not be a better state in the nation to celebrate the next stage in our Halloween life-cycles than Michigan.

For a state so economically depressed, Michigan’s haunted house market is one sector that isn’t suffering. More than 50 haunted attractions can be found within a few hours of Ann Arbor, with more being added each year. This hasn’t always been the case, though the popularity of Halloween among college students is sky high (even if that means a lot of beer and a lot of cleavagey Cinderellas).

A lot of the credit for the state’s position as the nation’s most haunted area can be traced back to Ed Terebus and his brother James, owners and creators of the nation’s largest haunted house, Erebus, in downtown Pontiac.

What started as a side project has turned into an all-out passion for Ed Terebus, a locksmith by trade, who prior to 2000, sold his home and moved in with his brother, James, to buy the warehouse where Erebus is now housed. The two brothers have been in the haunt business for 28 years and are the creators of the Fear Finder, a newspaper listing of local haunts across Michigan.

Though Erebus — clearly the leader in the haunted house world — competes with other haunted attractions in the state, Terebus said that keeping the little guys alive is a big deal for Michigan to support such a thriving haunted market.

"We want to keep the little guy alive,” Terebus said. “We were all small haunts at one time.”

This sort of camaraderie among owners in Michigan is one of the main reasons for the explosion of haunted houses in the area, big and small. Families and couples are able to make a night of terror for themselves out of a pseudo-road trip to explore the haunted attractions.

Two such smaller attractions, the Haunted Winery in Farmington and Terror in Townsend Forest (run by the Oakland County Sportsmen's Club) in Clarkston, may not have the pizazz — nor the budget — of something like Erebus, but they still manage to pull off a haunting thrill. The Haunted Winery capitalizes on a confusing maze of dark rooms and people in costume who, to varying degrees, jump from behind corners looking to scare people. Terror in Townsend Forest is a different type of experience. A tour guide leads a group into a forest filled with goblins behind trees, funhouse tricks and plenty of chainsaw-toting clowns.

Dick Wilton, one of the Forest's tour guides and a lifetime member of the Oakland County Sportsmen’s Club, has been leading tours for three years and says the forest is geared more toward families and teenagers who aren’t looking for a massive spectacle.

“This isn’t like (Erebus).