The Spooky trail is coming back to Garretson this Halloween season! After a 5-year hiatus, the Jesse James Players are bringing it back, starting this Friday! Sets have been built and the trail marked out and the Jesse James Players are ready to bring on the thrills and chills. The Hike of Horrors will be a half mile hike, hosted on Oct. 18, 19th, 25th, 26th and Oct. 31st. Start time will be 7:30 p.m. and continue until 11 p.m. Price will be $10 at the gate.
“You’ll get full value for your money too,” said Marissa Wollmann of the Jesse James Players. “We’ve got a really great experience planned. Since we first did it, a lot of other spooky trails and haunted houses have started up. But I think we’ve got them beat, both in price and quality. It’s a little labor intensive, we love doing it, but it requires a lot of organization and setup. Actors, set builders, props. Just like a regular show, just not in a regular theater.”
Thankfully, she said that they had some muscle to spare.
“We were so happy that Mr. Long brought the football team out to help us do some heavy lifting!” she said. “The Garretson Football boys hauled six loads of stuff that filled two trailers and three trucks. Now we’re working on get- ting them assembled and ready for Halloween.”
In years past, they’ve used the rear woods and grasslands of Markell and Julie Gnadt’s backyard, they’ve used the trails of Splitrock Park, and once down in Corson. This year they’ll be going back to their roots.
“People who want to walk the trail will come down to park at the football complex, and we’ll have signs to point them to the start of the trail,” she said. “I don’t want to reveal too much about what we have planned, but one big feature this year is going to be a maze. We got a huge eighteen by thirty-six military tent, and we’ve been working hard to assemble a maze inside it. Fixing props, sorting and repairing props and sets. It’s been a lot of fun to get this going and I think people are really going to like it.”
When asked what prompted the 5-year hiatus, Wollman said there were lots of reasons.
“First, it is a lot of work for everybody,” she said. “And then my kids were growing up too. After we did the last one, soon after, Bryce started college football at Augie (Augustana University) and Siri got a concussion. Those things kept us busy. We thought about doing it, people asked us when we were going to do it again, but something always came up. At the last meeting of the Jesse James Players how- ever, we talked about it, everybody was pretty positive about it and so we decided to move forward. My kids are grown now, but Julie and Markell’s kids are at about the same ages that Bryce and Siri were when we first started the Spooky trail. It’s been long enough that they either don’t remember the last time we did it or they didn’t remember much. Talking to some of the kids around town though, they remember it and are excited to see it come back. We won’t disappoint.”
“For me, Halloween is just one of those fun holidays. I’m pretty sure that we were one of the first places in the region to have an event like this. I’ve got a lot of good memories of making Garretson, ‘Scarretson.’ Things like coffin races and a zombie run. I’d like to see more of that happening again. So aside from inviting everybody to come out for some scary fun on the trail, I also want to encourage everybody to go all out decorating for this Halloween! Make your street Spooktacular! Get out and decorate for Halloween, and be creative.”
“Just a couple reminders. Unfortunately, the trail is not wheelchair accessible and we don’t have any real feasible way of making it so, as the trail will go through trees and rough terrain and there is no way around that. Costumes are welcome of course, as are families (though it’s recommended that kids be 10 or older), but please remember that this is South Dakota and it can get cold in October so dress appropriately, bring a jacket and don’t wear heels.”
