Niles Scream Park Now Of­fer­ing So­cially-Dis­tanced Scares

Niles Scream Park, a haunted at­trac­tion in Niles, Michi­gan, opened its doors for the 2020 sea­son on Fri­day, Sept. 11. In the month of Oc­to­ber, the park is open every Fri­day, Sat­ur­day and Sun­day. They will also host their Black Out event Nov. 6 and 7; at this event they will not use any light ef­fects in their “Haunted House,” “Base­ment” or “The Cursed Cru­sade” at­trac­tions. Vis­i­tors will be given a glow­stick, and that is how they will find their way through each one.  

This 44-acre park re­ceives rou­tine up­dates to its six haunted at­trac­tions each year. Their most pop­u­lar at­trac­tion, “Niles Haunted House,” re­quires vis­i­tors to hike down a path to a large house in which they will en­ter and be lead through var­i­ous fright-in­duc­ing rooms.  

“Once you get into the house, there are over 100 dif­fer­ent paths through the at­trac­tion and it is im­pos­si­ble to see it all with less than seven trips,” a pro­mo­tional packet ex­plains.  

The “Field of Screams” is an­other pop­u­lar at­trac­tion. It fea­tures mul­ti­ple out­door mazes and sites such as an aban­doned car­ni­val and a ceme­tery.  

Each at­trac­tion comes with its own unique back­story meant to scare vis­i­tors be­fore they even en­ter the park. Niles Scream Park has been open for 47 years, and Haunted At­trac­tion Mag­a­zine rec­og­nized it as one of the “Top 31 Must-See Haunted At­trac­tions.”  

The park is known for its do­na­tions to school dis­tricts and non-profit or­ga­ni­za­tions, as well as for its col­lege schol­ar­ships for stu­dents in Niles.  

Ac­cord­ing to a pro­mo­tional packet, “The Niles Scream Park is a non-profit com­mu­nity pro­ject that uses ap­prox­i­mately 200 vol­un­teers per night to staff its var­i­ous at­trac­tions.” 

Be­cause of the threat of COVID-19, vis­i­tors  must fol­low CDC guide­lines, in­clud­ing wear­ing masks and al­low­ing the staff to take their tem­per­a­ture be­fore en­ter­ing the park, and they must make reser­va­tions be­fore 5 p.m. the day they wish to visit the park.  

The six feet so­cial-dis­tanc­ing rule will be in place and vol­un­teers will be en­sur­ing that it is fol­lowed. This also means that the staff will not be al­lowed to touch the vis­i­tors as they have been in the past at at­trac­tions that are for vis­i­tors ages 18 years old and up.  

The park has also in­cor­po­rated new clean­ing pro­ce­dures. The group in charge of mak­ing sure the park is dis­in­fected is re­ferred to as, “The Scream Clean Team.” They will wear red jack­ets and ro­tate to dif­fer­ent ar­eas of the park to make sure every sur­face is germ free.  

To limit cross con­t­a­m­i­na­tion, the only ac­cepted form of pay­ment is credit card or ex­act cash. There will also be hand san­i­tiz­ing sta­tions posted around the en­tire park.  

Even though COVID-19 poses wor­ries, the park is ad­her­ing to every guide­line pro­vided by the CDC to en­sure the right kind of scares.  

If you are in­ter­ested in vis­it­ing the park this year, please visit www.haunted.org for more in­for­ma­tion about how to make reser­va­tions and about the at­trac­tions them­selves. 

All in­for­ma­tion comes from the park’s pro­mo­tional ma­te­ri­als as at­tempts to reach the park were not suc­cess­ful.