In 2010, the inspiration for my haunt came from my recently completed novel, Thunderstruck. When trick-or-treaters arrived, they entered the long lost mine of Cahoot D'arc.
At the entrance, I met visitors dressed as a miner. I told them that we were following Cahoot's journals to find his treasure. I pointed out a poor buried soul behind me to show the unfortunate accidents we'd had. Then, I hollered to a couple of miners in the back that we had "some visitors here." Unfortunately, they misinterpreted my words and thought I said "all clear." As I realized their mistake, I rushed smaller visitors under a table for safety just as an explosion rocked the mine.
The buried miner was made by simply stuffing a pair of jeans and propping them with boots under fabric draped across our hallway. I had my daughter and nephew help me with this haunt, so they were the miners in the back who start the explosion, which was a recording. When it went off, I wobbled and tipped around, as if the ground were unsteady, and hammed it up as much as possible.
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After we recovered from the explosion, I took visitors into the next room. In one corner was a mess of spiders and webs, that I warned them against. Then, I turned around and got extremely embarrassed by the sight of "Paul"--a typical miner 49'er--bathing in a mine cart, complete with a little doggy friend.
I created my miner with my daughter's Fur Real dog (that moved independently), a plaid shirt, battered hat, and a mask. I put him in an old red wagon, with cotton batting fluffed up like bubbles. A stuffed dog kept him company, and a recording provided his singing for the tub.
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We hustled past Paul, leaving him to his bath, and went into the next room (our garage). I told visitors that we had just hollowed out this stope, then I noticed a treasure chest full of sacks of "gold" and gold nuggets. But before we could touch it, Thunder rumbled and the lights went out.
That's when the ghost of Cahoot D'arc appeared, gun in hand. He threatend us for claim jumping, and demanded we leave his treasure alone.
For the treasure, I ordered bags of "gold" bubble gum online and painted some rocks to look like huge nuggets. My nephew played the part of Cahoot's ghost with glow-in-the-dark makeup.
This part of the haunt proved to be a little too scary for some of our younger visitors, what with the thunder sound effects, darkness, and glowing ghosts. In spite of that, I think the effect worked very well. |
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Before visitors could get too frightened by this rough hombre, Cahoot's ma appeared and scolded him for running around scaring folks half to death. She dragged him away by his ear, and the lights came back on. I let kids pick a bag of gold from the treasure chest, and sent visitors on their way.
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