For as long as I can remember, spooking one another has been a long-time family tradition. If I had to pick one specific memory, I would say it started with my grandmother telling us about the Screaming Woman that lived in the upstairs attic closets of her house.

I later found out that it was a technique she used to keep the grandkids out of spaces she didn't want them in, but the Screaming Woman stories made for many fun memories at my grandmother's house. Parents, aunts, and older cousins joined in on the fun by yelling "Screaming Woman!!!" when any of the youngsters were upstairs alone--for the simple joy of seeing how quickly they could fly down the staircase. Once, an older cousin dressed as the Screaming Woman and hid in a closet and caused a stampede of cousins down the carpeted staircase that delivered plenty of rug burns throughout my childhood years.   

 

In grade school years, my cousin and I would spend hours, days, possibly months, creating our own haunted houses in the basement of my great aunt's house. Using crocheted afghans and family heirloom quilts, we partitioned rooms of terror. Our decor consisted of popping the heads off of old baby dolls and using entire bottles of ketchup. We created characters and rehearsed lines until we were ready to let the adults in. They were our only customers, but we had big dreams of inviting the whole town and charging admission. 

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That dream came true when I was 12 years old. Our 4-H club, led by my mother (Bonny), decided to build a haunted house as a club activity/fundraiser. With the help of all members and parents, we created a haunted house in our family's barn. Our barn was built from an old, dilapidated farmhouse once belonging to the Helen Martens family, originally located six miles south of Atkinson, NE. The two-story home was moved to our property in the late 70's and converted to a barn-- complete with four stalls, a work room, grain room, tack room, and an attic. It became "Marten Manor" for the duration of our event. 

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Scaring each other became tradition in our family. Everyone participated, no one was exempt, and if you were successful enough to draw a jump, scream, or even tears, you felt a sense of triumph. Not a single slumber party was had without my mom sneaking up on us in a mask. No camping trip was complete without a spooky story leading to a startle. Many games of hide & seek in the dark or midnight forest walks took place over the years, and no one will forget the cornfield exploration mom dared us to do (the year Children of the Corn was released) where we came upon bloody luggage in one of the rows of corn behind our house---causing yet another stampede back to safety. 

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Scary = fun in our family. Many memories, many laughs. 

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In 1996 I began contract managing a large property, the Crystal Ballroom, as a skating rink/dance hall/youth entertainment center. We strived to provide entertainment to our area's youth and eventually, our family decided to build and host a haunted house. It was a huge success, and we continued this event annually for nearly a decade until the building sold. Many people begged us to find an alternate location but there were none to be found. Finally, a local Atkinson businessman offered us a building he had just purchased but didn't have plans for yet--a former church. We partnered together with another family for what was to become our last haunted house. The building was perfect! Completely empty, it had more space than we previously had and came complete with a baptismal pool that we converted into a monster infested swamp. Unfortunately, that property sold just a year later, and we were without a location again. 

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We gave it up and started a new tradition. Instead of being the actors, we became the victims. Our family began taking annual trips to metro areas each October, where we visited as many haunted house attractions as we could. We saw them ALL! Haunted houses, haunted mazes, haunted cornfields, big properties, small properties, company owned venues, and private fundraising haunted houses. We continued this tradition for another 10 years. Each year, as my youngest daughter got older, she begged us to have another haunted house. When we hosted our final haunted house, she was just an infant, therefore she had no memories of the fun we had. All she had were the stories we told and the longing to have the same experiences the rest of the family shared.

 

It was during these trips that I became envious of the properties that offered the same attraction year after year, Mystery Manor, Scary Acres, etc. They had the advantage of a permanent location and were able to leave their attraction set up from one year to the next without having to tear down and rebuild each season. I had a huge amount of respect for attractions like Screamers or Shadow's Edge, who had pop-up haunted houses in various parking lots or warehouses, because I understood the amount of work they had to put into their production--similar to the way we operated in the past.

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My wheels began to turn. I longed to have another haunted house, if not for myself, for my daughter. At that point, each annual haunted house trip became more of a recon-expedition for me, and I started dreaming about ways to make this work. If I created another haunted house in my small rural community, I would have a limited clientele and after the above-mentioned experience, I felt like I had more to offer. I had burning questions: Why do we have to drive so far to visit haunted attractions? How can I avoid having to set up and tear down each season? How can I bring an attraction to other rural areas of Nebraska? ...and then I had answers. But an idea is only an idea, a dream is only a dream, until it comes to fruition...and the timing just wasn't right. I sat on this idea for nearly 5 years. 

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In 2023 our family headed to Omaha for our annual trip to visit haunted houses. We were sad to hear that one of our favorite haunts (Mystery Manor) had closed that year with no intent to reopen. We also learned that this was the last year of operation for another favorite attraction (The Shadow's Edge). We hit up as many remaining haunted houses as we could in one weekend. On the way home, I was reading an online article about the closing attractions. In that article, a long-time, well experienced, haunted attraction professional wrote "...this will leave a huge gap in the haunting community." I looked at my husband and said, "If we're ever going to do this, now is the time." Later that night, my husband was browsing on his phone, and he looked at me and said, "I found a 53' dry van trailer for sale and it's only 30 minutes from our home." 

Somehow, that man understands my crazy and shares my dreams!!!! 

I start rambling, he gets graph paper. I have visions, he has tools. 

Within two weeks, we had that trailer purchased. 

The rest of the family members declared they were ALL IN. 

And the Trailer of Terror was born!