It was a dark and scary night in 1998. It all began as a home Halloween party for the kids. We had decided to put together a small haunt in an unfinished upstairs room. We did all the "typical" scares for kids...the bowls of
brains, eyeballs, etc..., hiding behind things and jumping out--very low key stuff. When we saw how jumpy our friends were at some of the simplest things, we were hooked! Being a haunter is like being an addict--after your first time, you just can't
get enough! We vowed that the following year, we'd put some effort into doing something a little more elaborate. In 1999, we had our
first haunt in the woods. We had a reception party at our sister's and new husband's house and combined the Halloween theme. The haunted forest was a big hit! We decided the following year to have another Halloween party for friends and family. It was another year of rave reviews. We vowed to build a vortex tunnel before the next party. The tunnel was complete that summer and made its debut at the local county fair. Our friends kept telling us that we should charge to go through the woods. We didn't feel right taking their money. We decided that if we charged, we would donate money to the American Cancer Society with the proceeds. George and Catherine Balsley, our grandparents were the main inspiration for that. They had both passed away from cancer, and we had so many other friends and family members that cancer had touched. We decided to "scare away cancer" the best we could. The haunt continues to grow each year. We started inviting the local schools a few years ago, but we don't do a lot of advertising outside of that. Each year we add something big and change it up a bit for our regulars. We try to identify with different phobias that people have and give you a good, clean scare. We have been told that ours is the best one around! (of course we think so too!)
Scott Balsley: carpenter, "MacGyver", scare-extraordinaire.
Scott was born to scare. As a child, he would constantly hide everywhere and jump out at his sisters. He got much satisfaction from hearing their shrieks, then you'd hear his "heh-heh-heh" chuckle as he celebrated his successful scare. He would also run full-force through the house and slap his hands on the wall/fridge, then fall to the ground screaming---all to scare his mom who was sure he was hurt. Wrong, yes. but in hindsight, pretty funny. Little scary Scott grew up to become a carpenter. A carpenter who loves to scare is the perfect prop builder! Scott has an artistic side and has always been imaginative.
His wife Cathy keeps things organized. She also takes care of all of the sewing projects for the haunt and puts in a lot of elbow grease too! The three "little kids" that inspired the whole haunting tradition have grown up surrounded by creepy, crawly things. When most kids were in the back yards swinging, they were dragging skeletons through the woods, yelling "wheeeeeeeeeee". Don't worry, they're pretty normal teenage kids now. Scottie, Stephanie, and Taylor put in their share of hard work and get great satisfaction from hearing the screams during the haunt!
Joey Truxell: artist, pack rat - "we could make something out of that guy."
Joey has always had a love for art. From his first crayola, he knew that there was no limit to what could be created. Little did he know when he married Scott's sister, that he would be using his talent for good and evil at the same time one day. His artistic abilities combined with Scott's talents resulted in what we call Twizted Creationz. His wife Kelly gets her hand in it too, from expert pumpkin carver to painting and other odds and ends.
Raymond Gochenour and Joel Batts have both been invaluable additions to the scare crew. Both of them are talented builders and creative in their own right. In the past 2 years, Raymond and Joel have made it possible for us to add many new attractions that we would not have been able to add without them.
We would like to welcome Jerry (Booper) to our Boo crew this year. His help as our new sound technichian made it possible for us to complete one of our largest projects of the year, our hellevator.
There are so many other people that volunteer their time and talents to us every year. It takes a lot of people to put on a show like ours and we are very lucky to be surrounded by the great group of friends and family that are there for us. Some haven't missed a year yet! We couldn't do it without their dedication and hard work.
Visit our contact page and send us an email!
Every Fri and Sat, Starting Sept 30th - Oct 31st.
Every Thursday in Oct is a non-scare night!
September 30
October 1
October 7, 8
October 14, 15
October 21, 22
October 28, 29
October 30, 31
Tours start at dark!
Continue 'till 11:00pm
(10:00pm Thursday and Sunday of Halloween)
Want to Audition or become a Volunteer?
Call at 540-457-4000