This weekend, the Ames Haunted Forest hosted its opener. However, it became a victim to the ambiguous Iowa fall weather. This did not stop attracting scare-seekers around the Ames area.

Even though the weather was rainy, the Ames Haunted Forest has stayed busy with attendance, maintaining a steady average of 700 customers but expects to increase to 1,000 next weekend.

The forest is located at South Fourth and Riverside, a couple blocks east of Jack Trice stadium. 

The Haunted Forest is an attraction where thrill-seekers trek through a 15 to 20 minute walk in Ames’ own Stuart Smith Park.

Throughout the course, customers will be faced by a group of actors. These actors will play roles based on the scene in the forest.

Some of this year’s scenes include a cemetery with real tombstones, a meat locker, a hospital with a surgical table and several chainsaws throughout the trail.

New to the Haunted forest this year is a tunnel attraction called the black hole, which spins and creates an illusion that the customer is moving.

The black hole will be accompanied by Mango, a gatekeeping cyborg zombie.

“The goal this year is to be the No. 1 Haunted attraction in Iowa,” said Lee Ballard, Haunted Forest co-director. He will reach this by “hiring exceptional actors and using great props.”

The Haunted Forest employs 40 actors, of which a majority are Iowa State students. These positions are not limited to performing arts majors, but branch out as far as mechanical engineering.

Haunted Forest Co-Director Lynn Ballard said: “People scare people.”

And that is why he said he hires so many people.

“This is the best group of actors we’ve ever had,” Lynn said. People travel as far as 75 to 100 miles away to experience their performance.  

The Haunted Forest supports thrill-seekers of all ages. “We’ve had people who were in their 70s come,” Lee Ballard said.

The Haunted Forest is open from 8 p.m. to midnight on Friday and Saturday nights except on the weekend of Halloween, when they will be open on Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 8 p.m. to midnight.

The Ames Haunted Forest is a Halloween attraction that has been providing the Ames area with Halloween scares since 1998 and hopes to keep scaring for many years to come.