History

The Haunted Woods was started by volunteers from the City of Rosemount, Rosemount High School and citizens of Rosemount. It was always held over a couple of nights and on Halloween night. The Halloween party was originally held in the high school commons area, then later moved to the community center.

In 1991 on Halloween night, the now famous Halloween Blizzard dumped over 41” of wet snow in 2 days, thus canceling the Haunted Woods and destroying many of the props used to put this production on. After the storm, the props that could be salvaged were placed into a semi trailer for storage.  After the 1991 blizzard the numbers declined.  A Halloween party was done at the community center, but it just wasn’t the same. This went on for almost 10 years.

2001- A group of volunteers decided to give the Haunted Woods another chance. It was scaled back. 300 people showed up at Central Park, with only Rosemount Seniors passing out candy from the shelter.

2002 - The Halloween Committee renamed the Haunted Woods to the Haunted Woods Trail (as it's known now) 933 showed up to an event that had been away for so long.

2003 - The Halloween committee had several fundraisers to make the public more aware of this city event.  They estimated only 1,300 people would show up.  Later they found out that over 1,600 people showed up.

2004 – More local businesses wanted to get in on the action. A total of 1,922 in attendance. A new entrance and more props were added, and the cemetery doubled in size.

2005 - More businesses worked the trail and more blow-up figures were purchased. They brought in 2,461 people to this event.

2006 - The pirates and pirate ship were repainted with brighter paint so they showed up better at night. The trail was extended around the west hockey rink, which helped with crowd control, and there were over 2,200 people in attendance.

2007 - 25th Anniversary. This year a new haunted house prop was added, along with a giant pumpkin on the amphitheater stage. A total of 2,650 were in attendance, a new record. Over 400 lbs of food was collected for the local shelf.

2008 - The spider tunnel had a makeover with a new orange web and a giant spider blowup. Attendance for the evening was 3,741 people, blowing all previous attendance records out of the woods. Over 1,000 lbs of food were collected for the local food shelf.

2009 - Another great year with over 2,675 people in attendance. Over 1,000 lbs of food were collected for the local food shelf.

2010 – Another fabulous year with over 3,000 people attending.  Over 1,500 lbs of food were collected for the food shelf. Also it was reported that over 85 gallons of coffee, cider and hot chocolate were consumed.

October 29th, 2011

6-8pm

Cosponsored by

The Rosemount Halloween Committee and the Rosemount Parks & Recreation Department