Haunted Shack

The Haunted Shack Started Several Years Ago As a Community Driven Haunted House. It Was Just a Small Three Hour Production Held in a Small 600 Square Foot Basement of the Local Fire Hall in Gary New Duluth. With Local Citizens Digging Through Their attics and Garages for Christmas Lights and Other Props that they used To Make The Haunted House. Someone Else Would Bring a Small Boom Box with a Halloween Spooky Tape and Play it in the Background. A web of ropes and plastic suspended from the Fire House Ceilings Made the Haunted Maze. Actors dressed Up in Costumes and Jumped out on Cue to scare the kids and adults That Ventured Through small town haunted house. With Spaghetti for Brains, a Man dressed as a Gorilla, The Local Teacher as Dracula and the Head in the Table Gag it was a Great Show for a Small Town.

This Production Carried On For Several Years. One Day They Asked A Local Citizen If He Would Be Willing To Put The Production On. This Man Accepted The Challenge and Put His Thoughts Together With Some Of His Closest Friends. They Started Setting Up Three Days Prior To The Event. Working Long Hours throughout the Night to Set up Their web of ropes and Maze of Plastic Walls. Then Worked on Detailing Their Scenes for the Three Hour Production to Come. The Day Came and Passed and This Man Was Asked To Do It Again The Following Year. He Accepted Under a Few Conditions:
1.) A Much Larger Building,
2.) More Running Days and
3.) A Donation Fee to Be Given to the Local Special Olympics with a Can Good Donation for the local food shelf.
The Conditions Were Accepted and the Local Man (Dubbed As the Halloween Freak) Gathered His Closest Friends and the Local Troop 13 Boy Scouts and Ventured Into Their New 1800 Square Foot Building.

The Following Year, Flyers Were Distributed and Word Of Mouth Roamed Quickly That The Local SKATING SHACK Was To Be Turned Into a "HAUNTED SHACK" Thus The Name Has Begun. THE HAUNTED SHACK... Having Two Weeks To Put Up Their Plastic Walls And Scenes, They Turned The Skating Shack Into A True Haunted Shack. Neighbors Pooled Their Skills and Props Together to Make This a Successful Fund Raising Drive. With Full Community and city support The Haunted Shack Was A Success... On opening night they had a sneak peak for the press, media, and even city officials (The Mayor, City Council and even a State Senator) attending the Opening Night.

Each Year The Haunted Shack Has Grown with More Volunteers, More Sound Equipment Was Added and The Evolution of Portable 2x4 Walls.

In 1998 The Haunted Shack Had A Little Snag. The Local Community Education Needed The Building During The Dates of The Haunted Shack and Thus Looking Like The End of The 3 Years of Fun. But A Local Parks & Rec Personnel Offered Half of His Community Center To the Now 50 Halloween Freaks to Continue There Fund Raising Activities. The New Building Offers 2500 Square Foot Of Space. The Advertising Went Out in Local Papers, T.V., Radio and Flyers of The Change. This Year Was The Biggest Success of The Annual Haunted Shack Event.

Over The Years the Haunted Shack Has Escalated Into a Full Blown Month Long Production with Live Actors, Computer Animation and Many Volunteers. The Planning For This Haunted House Constantly Goes On Year Round. With Designing New Scenes To Sponsorship Support It Takes an Entire Crew & Committee Constantly Working To Make Each Year Better Than The Past. With Computerized Lighting, 12 Separate Sound Tracks, and Play back screams of yourself On an Awesome 24 channel Sound System You Are Sure to feel the now famous Heart Beat like It Was Your Own. With Live Actors Lurking The Halls, It Is Hard To Determine If It Is Real Or If It Is Animated, But You Will Have To Determine if You Are Going To Survive and Make It Through The Maze of Terror............

In 2004 the Haunted Shack had hooked up with the Duluth Zoo staff and now assist them with their annul Boo @ the Zoo day. The Haunted Shack volunteers set up a portable version of the HAUNTED SHACK and displays it at their event now dubbing this HAUNTED SHACK as the "BOO @ THE ZOO - THE NOT SO SCARY HAUNTED SHACK" Also, in 2004 the City of Duluth had changed its policy and there was a miss communication on the Haunted Shack. This year the Haunted Shack had suffered a devastating and crippling blow for the Special Olympics and the local food shelf. The Haunted Shack had to fold up its operation and could not do the fund raiser this year. After many hours of negotiation with the City officials and the help from a local Bank an agreement had been worked out and the HAUNTED SHACK WAS BACK IN 2005...LET YOUR NIGHTMARES CONTINUE!!!!!

Since 2005 the Haunted Shack has been growing in sponsorship and recognition for being the Scariest Haunted House in Minnesota. They have brought in Live Radio Remotes, Venders to sell food, State Senators, Mayors, City Officials, Car Dealerships to show off their latest automobiles, and in 2006 “Mrs. MN 2004 & Mrs. National 2006” was present to meet the daring spectators and sign auto-graphs.

In 2007 the Haunted Shack had to renegotiate its Memo of Understanding with the City of Duluth. After 6 months of back and forth, in the seventh hour of the negotiations, (almost at the point of cancelling the event) we came to an agreement and the Shack is back (again). This year is sure to be one of the better productions that the Haunted Shack has ever produced. By the way “WE DON’T SUPPLY ANY DIAPERS”.

In 2009 the Haunted Shack Planning committee wanted to make a big change. The front facade needed a new Face Lift. After many months of planning it all came together the first 2 weeks of set-up. With carpenters working every night "looking like Extreme Home Make-Over" the Front Facade came together. "It reminds me of an Old Rickety broke down eerie Old House it is going to be a great big new addition. With a fabulous new light show planned and new additional haunting freaks from the Garage of Ghouls it is sure to be the best show we have ever put on.

In 2010 the Haunted Shack was working very hard with the Morgan Park Hockey Association, Morgan Park Community Center, The Morgan Park Senior Center and the City of Duluth to achieve added space. With many months of negotiations between all parties The Haunted Shack was able to attain an additional 50% more space. With the added space the Haunted Shack is able to give its followers a lot larger venue and even a bigger scare. With adding a Fall Program to the Parks and Rec Department the Community is able to open its community center up to the community to help put on the Annual Haunted Shack. Now in its 17th Season with a larger venue and the new Tunnel of Terror you will have to wind your way through the maze of hallways and determine, on a larger scale, if it is real or animated. With a bigger and better lights and sound show it only adds to the experience that everyone has come to expect. Remember the great charities that this all supports. The local Special Olympics, Local Food Shelf and the Northland Coat Drive. In the Past 2 years the HAUNTED SHACK ALONE has DONATED OVER1700 COATS to the NORTHLAND COAT DRIVE.

In 2011 the Haunted Shack made a huge jump into the World of Haunting Special Effects. With the purchase of the new LOW VOLTAGE COMPUTERIZED LIGHTS and High Tech Lazars. We are able to take our lighting into the next generation. Not only the lighting can be controlled but with the addition of some pretty cool special effects pneumatics it is going to be an awesome show. A special Thanks to Double D Trucking that helped to Sponsor this Lighting. In 2010 the Haunted Shack Alone raised 921 Coats for the Northland Coat Drive and over 2000 lbs. of can goods for the Local Food Shelf... I personally thank each and every one of you who made 2010 a record breaking year for us. Check out the web site for great offers and details www.hauntedshack.com or join our Facebook page.

2012 is going to be the biggest and best year yet. With much debate and negotiations the HAUNTED SHACK will be moving locations. This year will be bigger and better with an added attraction. Not only will we be having the Haunted Shack but we will be adding a Haunted Hayride for your added enjoyment. The Haunted Shack will be Re-Locating to the Buffalo House inside the Junction and the Hayride will encompass the campground area. After negotiating with the owners of the Buffalo House they welcomed us with open arms and much excitement. Buffalo valley, for the month of October, will be converted to “TERROR IN BUFFALO VALLEY”. Also, this year we have been busy building our new prop for the haunt. It will be an elevator ride that takes you down to the depths of hell. We call the new prop the “HELLEVATOR.” This will be a ride that shakes, rattles, up and down and the feel of free falling with all the special effects of lighting, sound and movement to give you a fear of your life.
Come check the Haunted Shack and Hayride out at the Buffalo House, 2590 Guss Road Duluth, MN 55810. For more info on the Buffalo House Check out there web site at http://buffalohouseduluth.com. Minnesota’s Scariest Haunt. See you in October 2012.

2014 started off as a frightening year. The harsh winter played a devastating blow to the Buffalo House. The Buffalo Junction (where the Haunted Shack set up its maze) roof collapsed do to the snow load. With much debate the Buffalo House Management decided to tear down the original Junction and re-build. That left the Haunted Shack in wonders if this could be the end of a 20 year legacy. Then I received a text and it was from one of the owners of the Buffalo House. “Pat its Scotty stop on up tonight.” So I did and the building was well into construction at this point. He needed to ask me.....
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