Weekend drive – observertoday.com

Jun 11, 2026
Sixty to 80 professional vehicles are expected to be on display in Chautauqua County during Hearsemania.

Dozens of hearses will be ascending on Chautauqua County this week.
But it will be all for fun.
Hearsemania will take place Friday to Sunday. The organization has more than 100 hearse owners throughout the country and the group will be making stops this weekend in Westfield, Portland, Fredonia, Lily Dale and Mayville.
John Ehmer with Hearsemania said they started about eight years ago as a Halloween event for a single day. They are now a three-day event and gather outside of Halloween time.
Locally, the event begins Friday at 9:30 a.m. in Westfield, where they will be doing a cemetery tour on Academy Street, followed by a tour of the Portland Evergreen Cemetery at 11 a.m.
Hearsemania will take place Friday-Sunday with stops in Fredonia, Westfield, Lily Dale and Mayville.
Around lunchtime they will be in Barker Common in Fredonia, and then tour the village’s Forest Hill Cemetery at 1:30 p.m. For dinner, the group will be at When Pigs Fly in the town of Westfield near Barcelona Harbor.
On Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Hearsemania will be participating in the Spring Funfest Celebration at Lily Dale.
Sunday will be a “Remains to be seen” car show at Lakeside Park in Mayville from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Ehmer said they have four hearse groups that support them. One is in West Virginia, one is in Buffalo, and two are out of the Pittsburgh area.
Ehmer is guessing there will be around 60-80 vehicles. “These are older automobiles – antique, vintage, they’re coming long distances,” he said.
The vehicles will all be classified as professional cars. “A professional car is basically a funeral vehicle. That can be a hearse, a service car, a flower car, a limousine. Then we will also have emergency vehicles, which will be in the ambulance category,” Ehmer said.
Ehmer said attendees from the local community will see a lot of unusual vehicles. “Not only are they unusual for what their job duties were, but unusual because some of them were made by different body manufacturers that converted these cars into a professional vehicle,” he said.
Their visit this upcoming weekend will be their first visit ever to not only Chautauqua County, but to Western New York as a whole.
Ehmer noted that when they do these Hearsemania events around the country, they tend to draw outside tourists as well.
He said they wanted to do an event in Western New York for their Buffalo group when he learned about Lily Dale. “I think a lot of people that follow us would have a connection there and I think a lot of people that follow the Lily Dale connection will have some sort of connection with our group also, so I think it’s going to be a mutual benefit,” Ehmer said.
Ehmer noted that he’s been a hearse driver for 50 years.
“When I got started they were not popular. People did not get drawn to them. They were pushed away. But things have changed now. We are popular. People enjoy some things so unique and different nowadays, so we are invited in. People seek us out now. They follow us. But like I said, 50 years ago, it was a totally different ballgame,” he said.
All of their events this weekend will be free.
For additional information search Hearsemania on Facebook.
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