Fact versus fiction
See how real Joplin history becomes the foundation for fictional doors, ghosts, creatures, and carnival magic.
Read the guide →A field guide to the city that remembers
Haunted Joplin
Real streets. Vanished landmarks. Local stories. One fictional Halloween night when every lost door opens again.
Joplin history Vanished places Halloween fiction Local memory
The city beneath the story
Every impossible place began with a real one.
The Midnight Parade is a supernatural adventure, but its Joplin roots are real.
The novel follows Tess, Owen, Imani, and Benji through a Halloween festival where vanished buildings return, familiar streets change shape, and the city’s history steps out from behind the glass. The settings below were chosen because people still remember them, protect them, research them, or wonder what it would feel like to see them alive again.
This guide keeps two ideas side by side. The history sections describe the real place. The story sections explain how the novel transforms that place through fictional events, invented interiors, supernatural rules, and imagined encounters.
Choose your next stop
STOP 01 / THE NEIGHBORHOOD
STOP 02 / THE HOUSE
STOP 03 / THE HOTEL
STOP 04 / THE LOST PARK
STOP 05 / BELOW JOPLIN
STOP 06 / ARRIVALS
STOP 07 / THE FIRST NAME
Murphysburg
Joplin’s historic residential district becomes the threshold between a community festival and a city that should no longer exist.
Enter Murphysburg →Schifferdecker House
A restored historic home, a remembered family, and a staircase that carries more than footsteps.
Climb the stairs →The Connor Hotel
Joplin’s grand vanished hotel returns in warm light, with every room ready and every invitation carrying a price.
Check in →Midway Park
An early amusement ground returns among the trees, all lanterns, music, glass, and attractions nobody assembled.
Walk the midway →Crystal Cave
A real underground wonder gives the story a staircase into a deeper, stranger version of the city.
Descend carefully →Union Depot
At a station built for arrivals and departures, the last train becomes a promise that the night can still end.
Find the platform →Peace Church Cemetery
The novel begins with a weathered name and a question about what remains when memory starts to fade.
Read the names →A note on local history: These pages use reputable local, library, preservation, museum, and public-record sources. Folklore is identified as folklore. The Midnight Parade’s supernatural events, private conversations, altered routes, and impossible interiors are fiction.
Continue your visit
Go beyond the landmarks.
Reader guide
Discussion questions and themes for teen readers, families, book clubs, teachers, and librarians.
Open the guide →Press and events
Book facts, author information, interview angles, and resources for local coverage and programming.
View press information →The gates open after dark
Meet the Joplin that returns for one impossible night.
The Midnight Parade is a family-friendly dark fantasy adventure for readers 13 and older, and for adults who never stopped waiting for Halloween.