Featured Event
Mane Street Was Built for Gunfights. Halloween It Belongs to the Kids.
Mane Street was built in 1946 for men with six-shooters. Dick Curtis dreamed it up as a working Western set, Roy Rogers and Russell Hayden helped bring it to life, and for years the false fronts stood in for whatever frontier town Hollywood needed that week. The Cisco Kid rode through here.
On Saturday afternoon, October 31, the street goes to a different cast. Friends of Pioneertown is putting on its annual Halloween on Mane Street, and from 3:30 to 6 p.m. the town's one famous road belongs to princesses, skeletons, tiny sheriffs and whatever a nine-year-old has decided a werewolf looks like this year. There's trick-or-treating, games, dancing, a costume contest, and a parade down the middle of a street built for hooves and boots, not cars.
The kids were always here
It's easy to think of Pioneertown as a movie set that people moved into later. It wasn't. The actors lived in the buildings they filmed in, and a town grew up around the set from the start. Kids were part of the machinery. When the six-lane Pioneer Bowl opened down the street in the late forties, local children set the pins by hand while the rest of us saddled up at the bar.
A vintage bowling alley with polished wooden lanes and retro decor.
Pioneer Bowl is a vintage six-lane bowling alley in Pioneertown, CA, known for its historic charm, friendly service, and unique old-school atmosphere. Open limited hours on weekends, it offers a nostalgic experience with classic decor and a welcoming local vibe. Beer, hard cider, and hard seltzers are available, and the venue is wheelchair accessible. Menu Highlights: Beer and Wine Signature cocktails and ice cream specialties, including malts, banana splits, shakes, and sodas. Please reserve lanes directly on the Pioneer Bowl website.
Hours
So children on Mane Street aren't new. Those pinsetters earned their spot at the far end of a lane, one rack at a time. On Saturday the kids get the whole street and it's already become a tradition.
The High Desert is growing up. Young families are developing strong communities, education is top of mind and Halloween Parade is another feather in the cap. Once a place reserved only for the roughest amongst us, the door has opened to a new generation of desert kids looking to the same street we do for a good time.
Preservation, in costume
Friends of Pioneertown is a resident-run nonprofit, and most of what it does isn't glamorous. It did the long, donated-dollar work that got Mane Street's historic district onto the National Register of Historic Places in 2020. Volunteers pick up trash along six miles of Pioneertown Road. They hang Christmas lights. They throw potlucks.
Halloween is the same work wearing a mask. A historic district survives on paperwork, but it stays alive because somebody's kid remembers it. A child who trick-or-treated past the Film Museum grows up caring what happens to it. Preservation, it turns out, can be a lot more fun than a grant application.
The timing gives it weight. Morongo Unified counts about 7,300 students now, down from close to 10,000 at its peak, and the district has spent this year debating whether some small schools can stay open. Fewer students in the Basin's classrooms makes the gatherings more important, not less. When the numbers thin out, an afternoon where families find each other on one street is how a community holds its shape.
Sarah Scott Alperin, who has been helping plan this year's event, calls it "a really sweet community afternoon." She has it right. This is a small town deciding, on purpose, to spend a Saturday on its children.
How the afternoon runs
Halloween on Mane Street
Pioneertown Halloween
Costumes take over Mane Street on Saturday, October 31, for Pioneertown’s Halloween Costume Contest & Parade. Friends of Pioneertown brings games, prizes, trick-or-treating and dancing to the afternoon gathering. Registration and contest check-in begin at 3:30 p.m. at Pioneertown Film Museum. The costume parade sets off around 5:30 p.m., and awards begin at 6 p.m. at the museum. The advertised afternoon window is 3:30–6 p.m., with awards starting at that closing hour. You don’t need a costume to take part. Line Mane Street and cheer on the parade.
Event scheduled for Oct 31, 2026
Contest check-in opens at 3:30 at the Pioneertown Film Museum on Mane Street. The afternoon fills with games, treats and dancing until the costume parade steps off around 5:30, with sundown close behind. Awards start at 6 back at the museum. Last year's was set for the Sunday before Halloween. This year it falls on the night itself, so plan on a long evening of crisp temps and good vibes.
You don't need a costume to be part of it. The organizers want people lining the street to cheer the parade as much as they want kids in it. Friends of Pioneertown posts the event and a registration link on its website. Check there before you go. Happy halloween!