CASPER, Wyo. — The typical sounds of farm life often echo off the walls of the humble Quonset hut barn on a ranch west of Casper.

For the month of October, however, those sounds of goats and cows has been replaced by creepy music, blood-curdling screams and maniacal laughter and yelling.

The conversion from working barn into a Halloween nightmare takes about three weeks, according to Carol Whitney, who owns the ranch with her husband, Jack, and is community leader for the Trail Busters 4-H Club.

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(Dan Cepeda, Oil City News)
“It takes a big team to put this up,” she said. “We have friends and family and volunteers who help.”

The idea started five years ago as a simple party for the 4-H club.

“At the time we had about 50 members, so we were going to set it up real quick for a Halloween party for the club,” she said. “Then it got really neat, and somebody said, ‘Why don’t you open this to the public?'”

“We had something like 250 people show up, and since then we have grown immensely,” she added. They expect well over 1,000 visitors this weekend before Halloween.

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Trevor Pulver stands in one of the rooms during a tour of the Haunted Barn west of Casper recently. (Dan Cepeda, Oil City News)
Her eldest grandson, Trevor Pulver, is one of her essential helpers. He’s a wildland firefighter who’s had a busy season, but he was able to make it back to help with the assembly and operation. He’s also been known to appear suddenly in the parking lot wielding a safely inoperable but still loud chainsaw. “I’ll be out where the cars are and stand a couple of cars away, scaring them before they even get here,” he said.

Inside, participants walk through a dark, narrow passage before entering a maze of rooms filled with animatronics, grisly displays and some 20 actors in elaborate makeup and costumes placed along the way. The ground is uneven with different textures, strobe lights sometimes cut through the darkness and artificial fog fills the air.

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(Dan Cepeda, Oil City News)
Some people don’t make it past the entry before making an about-face, they said. Many others ask to go again right away.

Carol says she hears the screams and yelps while working outside of the barn. “It’s scary but there’s a lot of laughter,” added Trevor. “It’s fantastic.”

Volunteers from the 4-H club help out as actors, as do students with the NCHS drama department with their instructor, Zach Schneider. “He comes out with them and they have been so much help,” Carol said. “They put up the asylum room, but they are also scattered through the whole barn and the cave out there as actors.”

In a small field next to the haunted barn is a large tent, which is filled with non-scary activities and sights for smaller children and the more squeamish. “We have a lot of families come out and their kids can play at the petting zoo or sit and have hot chocolate and cookies, while mom and dad go into the barn,” she said. A screen playing cartoons will also be set up, alongside face painting and various fire pits for people to gather and warm up.

All of the money raised goes back into the Trail Busters 4-H Club and the NCHS Theater department, she said. The 4-H club also spreads its earnings through town with charitable and community work.

The Haunted Barn is located at 11747 State Highway 220, west of Casper and before Bessemer Bend. A lighted road sign will be visible on the highway. Tickets are $10, cash only, which gives access to the Haunted Barn and surrounding activities. Parking is onsite. The Haunted Barn operates this Friday and Saturday from 7 to 10 p.m. and Sunday from 7 to 11 p.m. A child-friendly non-scary trick-or-treat event is on Sunday from 5 to 6 p.m.

More information can be found at the Haunted Barn’s Facebook page or by calling 307-259-2689.

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(Dan Cepeda, Oil City News)

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(Dan Cepeda, Oil City News)

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(Dan Cepeda, Oil City News)

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(Dan Cepeda, Oil City News)

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(Dan Cepeda, Oil City News)

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(Dan Cepeda, Oil City News)

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(Dan Cepeda, Oil City News)

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(Dan Cepeda, Oil City News)

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(Dan Cepeda, Oil City News)

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