Halloween haunted maze comes to Roodhouse

By Editor | October 8, 2024 |

By Carmen Ensinger

For several years, the Riley family have been largely responsible for the Haunted Hayride at the Roodhouse Rez, but that all ended last year.
Now, the Riley’s have moved their haunts into town. They are now set up next to the Flower Shop, located at 1020 N. Main.
Drew Riley, who built the maze along with his brother, Jim, and dad, Ralph explained how they came to locate at the Flower Shop.
“We were doing some landscape work for her this summer and we got to talking about the hayride,” Riley said. “She owns almost the whole block there and had this big, empty lot and said, ‘let’s do a haunted event here.’”
The Riley’s were thrilled to be able to put on their haunted event this year, but ran into a problem – they didn’t have anything to build with.
“All of the pallets we used to build with out at the Rez were thrown out on a burn pile,” Riley said. “So we got in contact with Alsey Refractories and Bunn and they gave us a ton of pallets, so between the two of them we have probably 400 pallets.”
The more pallets they had meant they could go bigger than even they imagined.
“It took us about two weeks to build, but we measured the maze and with all of the twists and turns we have in it, it is longer than a football field,” Riley said. “So, it is not just some small little garage haunt – it is a legit deal. Next year we would like to make it twice as big.”
The title of the maze is “The Little Shop of Horrors and The Devil’s Carnival.
“We decided to add a small carnival along with the maze this year,” Riley said. “We have used some of the pallet stands where the games will be.”
The theme this year is a carnival theme with devilish clowns and other freaky creatures one would see at the circus.
The cost to go through the maze is $5 and tickets for the carnival games are six tickets for $5. All of the proceeds raised from the event will be donated to the Roodhouse Feral Cat Program – a program that Hopkins is a part of. The proceeds will be used to spay and neuter the feral cats, provide veterinary care and food.
There will be a food truck on site that Hopkins will be operating to provide food and drinks.
On Oct. 26, they will have a Friendly Scare Trick or Treating from 4:30 to 6:30 and will be accepting donations of cat food instead of an entry fee.
The maze is open each Friday and Saturday until the end of October and on Halloween, Oct. 31. The carnival will start at 6 p.m. and the maze opens up at 7 p.m. and runs until 10 p.m.
“There will be quite a few scares as you travel through the maze,” Riley said. “There will be a scare around every corner you go around. We will have Leather Face with his chainsaw, Michael Myers and lots of scary clowns.
“We are basically just trying to do something to have an affordable haunt for the people of Roodhouse. We hope people will support it so we can keep growing it.”