ELLY GRIMM

   • Leader & Times

Those looking for a little extra spookiness to prepare for the upcoming Halloween season will have that opportunity next month thanks to the staff at the Coronado Museum/Dorothy’s House and the Land of Oz.

Haunted Oz will be taking place from noon to 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 17 on the museum grounds at 567 E. Cedar Street. Museum Director Nathan Dowell said there should be a lot of excitement surrounding the festivities.

“This event is essentially going to be our Halloween event of the year. We're going to have some free games and hopefully, we'll have some food trucks and vendors out here,” Dowell said. “But the centerpiece of it all is going to be our haunted house, which is where we take the Land of Oz exhibit everyone knows and loves, and we transform it into a haunted house people will be able to go through. The haunted house is always a really fun thing because some of our own Dorothys, who are among our biggest supporters and employees, are always the ones who take the lead in designing it, so and that's always a really fun thing because it's something they get to do from the ground up, and we're really excited to see it this year.”

Dowell said he is looking forward to seeing how people respond to the setup.

“The haunted house should be great, we're putting some changes into effect this year everyone should really enjoy,” Dowell said. “There are a few lessons we learned from last time, and we think we have ways to make the line a lot smoother this time. We also think we have an idea of how to make  the experience a lot more engaging and hopefully a bit different than what people might be expecting. We have some pretty cool ideas for that, and I think it's going to make the tour a lot more engaging in a way as opposed to last year, where people went through, got scared a few times and then were done. There are going to be some twists this time, and I'm pretty excited about those twists. I'm really excited for people to discover exactly what our planners have picked this time.”

Dowell said planning for Haunted Oz has been going on for a while.

“We knew we'd be doing Haunted Oz this year, and we’d decided that right at the end of Haunted Oz two years ago,” Dowell said. “Basically, the idea was always that we would have a Haunted Oz every two years, so loose talks have been happening as far back as then. For this year’s Haunted Oz in particular, we started throwing around ideas probably April or May, and then we started really seriously working on plans for the haunted house in early August.”

Dowell added Haunted Oz is a very unique event for people not only in Liberal, but also communities in the surrounding area.

“Haunted Oz is a really unique opportunity because not only are you going to get the normal people who are just looking for cool Halloween events and cool festivals and food truck markets and whatnot in town, but this is something that only happens every two years. It's a relatively unique thing,” Dowell said. “We also don't have very many haunted house attractions in town, and I think this is a great way to have something for people looking for that kind of attraction. There is the Trail of Terror, which is a very awesome event that happens every year. The Trail of Terror is going to be on the same day, and in fact, we encourage people to check out their event right after ours – Haunted Oz ends at 8 p.m. that day, and their event starts at 8 p.m., so especially for people looking for more terror, we encourage them to check that out. And so, I would tell vendors or anyone, if they are interested in participating in Haunted Oz, this is a unique thing that only happens every two years, and it's something that works the way it does because of our Land of Oz building. It's not just a haunted house created out of scratch, it is a very important part of Liberal's tourism identity that is transforming for one night only. It's a very unique, very gripping event people don't get a chance to see very often, so I would encourage people to come out and be a part of that.”

With that in mind, Dowell said he hopes to see high turnout for Haunted Oz.

“A lot of people in Liberal have seen the Land of Oz, so they already kind of know what it looks like, and so there's that mindset of ‘Well, we already know what the Land of Oz is, and we've been to Dorothy's House, so there's not too much reason to go there very often.’ This is the one day of the year where that is really not true. This is the one day of the year where people don't know what they’re going to find. This is the one day of the year where I think we're genuinely going to surprise people. We're going to have something different out there, so I would encourage people to not miss that opportunity because, especially for the people who maybe visited Dorothy's House at some point in the past, they do have a pretty good idea of our normal tour, but they don't have a good idea of what Haunted Oz is going to be this year. This is the one time you really don't know what to expect at Dorothy's House, and I wouldn't want anyone to miss out on that.”

Dowell added as a whole, the event will be family-friendly, but there are still some factors to keep in mind before coming.

“We're going to have free games, we're going to have a few contests, and we're going to have a few activities – all of that we're going to have out here, all of that is intended to be completely family friendly,” Dowell said. “We're going to have a few decorations and such, but otherwise, all of that is fully intended to be family friendly. With the actual haunted house portion of the night, I would advise parents to use their best judgment. We had a lot of very young kids go through it with no problem last year – however, every child is different. When people ask us, ‘Is this child friendly?’ that really depends on the child. It is a haunted house, and we are trying to scare you, but we're not trying to make it the scariest thing someone’s ever experienced. Even though I think people of all ages can enjoy our haunted house, I would say that it is meant to be scary, and it is meant to be a haunted house, so parents whether or not their child is someone who wants to brave that, or if they'd rather enjoy the free games that will be going on with everything else.”

Overall, Dowell said, he is expecting a successful Haunted Oz 2026.

“We're going to have the Oz train out and about, and that's always very popular. We'll also have some free games and we might have some pretty cool history things people will be able to see on that day, tied to maybe the spookier side of history, but that’s still being discussed how it would fit into everything,” Dowell said. “I would also tell everyone to keep an eye on our Facebook page because that is where people interested in coming will be able to find information about how to reserve spots in the haunted house. Last year, we had a very long line for the haunted house that was backed up quite a bit, so probably this year what we'll do is we will likely have a certain number of spots available on every tour. Some of those spots will be able to be reserved ahead of time. Some of those spots will be available at the door. I'm pretty excited about some of those activities, there's a lot people will be able to enjoy that day. But I think it's all about with the haunted house as the centerpiece, building all of these different components around it. So there's a little something for everyone.”