Tucked away off of Cornbread Road sits a two-story house surrounded by woods. The trees have started to change colors and the sound of leaves crunching can be heard as people, covered in dirt and blood, gather in a circle in the back yard.
Nancy Carlson, associate professor of telecommunications, stands in the middle of the circle, elevated above everyone’s head holding a megaphone.
“We have two dead teenagers on the hay ride, some scary sadistic clowns with a roaming gorilla at the circus and Satan,” Carlson said. “Wait, do we have a Satan with us? We need Satan.”
Carlson was speaking to more than 50 volunteers that showed up, despite the chilly and rainy weather, to help open the Haunted Forest in Yorktown, Ind. for the first time this year.
The Haunted Forest is completely run by volunteers. From the set up of props, to the make-up and costume artists, to the ticket collectors and ghosts and ghouls scaring visitors in the woods, anyone who steps foot on the property is simply there to help.
“We always reach around 60 volunteers, which is the amount we need to keep it running,” Carlson said. “We have a few high school students and family members out here, but we rely a lot on Ball State students, without them we wouldn’t be ready for opening night.”
On Oct. 3, Carlson, accompanied by a few men, stood in the garage of the old house off of Cornbread Road. They had already started setting up some of the props, and updating the ones that sit in the forest year round, but the light drizzle coming in transformed into a heavy rain and they had to put the set up on hold.
They disbanded and waited until 4 p.m. when the rain had stopped to start setting up again, but they only had a few hours until guests would start arriving.
“That first weekend was really rainy,” Carlson said. “But we got everything in order, and a lot of students came out to help. We raised $2,500 on that first weekend, which is pretty average for opening weekends.”
Bob Walsh, who owns the land and the house on Cornbread Road, said that the Haunted Forest has raised about $20,000 dollars since it opened its door two years ago, all of which goes towards a nonprofit organization. For the first two years, all the proceeds went to the Back to School Teachers Store, but this year the proceeds will be going to the Yorktown Firehouse.
The idea stemmed during a Back to School Teachers Store board meeting as a new way to raise money. Walsh proposed that they use his 17-acre land, which had a few trails leading through the woods.
“The woods are actually pretty scary by themselves,” Walsh said. “We just added a few things to make it even more creepy.”
The dedication to host the Haunted Forest on his land doesn’t just end when October is over. Some of the bigger props stay standing in the forest year round. When the leaves completely fall off the tree, he has to go out and cover the props so they don’t get vandalized, or draw people onto his land.
Until then, Walsh’s land is bombarded with strangers every Friday and Saturday.
One of those strangers, Taylor Sampson, a telecommunications major, stood in the backyard of Walsh’s house giggling. She had just gotten there for the first time, and was ready but reluctant to jump into character and start scaring people.
‘This is definitely knocking something off of my bucket list,” she said. “I’m a little bit nervous because I am very afraid of the dark.”
Sampson was dressed as a prison inmate, in a black and white striped jumpsuit. Her face was painted pale, with dark circles around her eyes. Her chin was dripping with blood.
“Although I’m afraid of the dark, Halloween is still one of my favorite holidays,” Sampson said. “I’m nervous, but I’m going to be paired with someone and people are going to be scattered all through the forest, so I’ll feel safe.”
Sampson didn’t show up dolled up, and looking dead. She had a little bit of help from India Potter, an art major.
Potter stood in the dimly light garage in front of a mirror shuffling through a box of stage and Halloween make-up. She picked up the brush she wanted, dabbed it in the white make-up and bent down face to face with a man dressed in hospital scrubs. Her short fuchsia hair was tied up behind her ears, and her eyes were focused on his nose.
“So they just told you to look dead?” she asked the man.
Potter volunteered last year as someone lurking in the woods, but changed directions this year and decided to stay completely behind the scenes and help with make-up.
She’s no stranger to make-up, but this is one of the first times that she has done heavy, scary make-up. She is used to beauty make-up and some themes a little less dramatic and extreme.
Even though she is a novice, Potter moves quickly with a steady hand. Like rapid fire, the volunteers come in, sit down, chat a little while she applies blood, dirt, scratches, stitches and black eyes to their faces.
“It’s no fun for anyone if they just sit there silent,” she said. “I want to know who I am sending out into the woods looking like Satan.”
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