By Randy Bates (Owner)
For 32 years, Arasapha Farm has been putting on a Halloween Haunted Attraction. This is the story of the people that have made it successful over the years.
It all started because our neighbor stopped hosting a charity haunted trail on his farm. In 1990, he had over 5,000 people show up and they proceeded to destroy his forest, breaking props and throwing trash around. I saw the potential to make a few bucks and have fun at the same time, however, I wanted to be different. We were already operating hayrides to picnic areas and bonfires, had four tractors and hay wagons, and had trails and infrastructure in place. We decided to open a Haunted Hayride in October 1991. My friend, Jim Townsend, and I set up a 15-minute trail through the tall forest on the farm. My wife and business partner, Anne sat at a picnic table taking admission money. New friends, Sam and Kurt Bonsall helped with artwork and sets. Both acted in the show as well. Sam was at a hanging scene where we had two bodies hanging on either side of him, and he held the “hanging noose” behind his back. When that wagon came by, he could just pretend to be hanging, then jump out at the wagon. Great scare. Kurt hid behind a stump with an axe stuck in it. I remember driving the tractor when a lady on the ride said “look, an axe” I’m thinking jump now! And he did, scaring the heck out of her.
Looking back, it was very simple and would never survive in this day. With 25 friends and family, we operated this attraction for five nights. The trail was lit by tea candles placed in milk jugs and had to be constantly looked after. We had cut the tops off to allow easy access to the candles, however, the customers thought it would be funny to drop straw into them, starting a rash of small fires. That year, the hayride broke even, and my friends had a great time scaring the customers. In 1992 Mike Hearn stepped in. He’s an HVAC guy and a blacksmith. We met when he came by to shoe my daughter’s horse (she later became the headless horseman). Mike and I got talking and he said he could make pretty much anything burn. Thus started the Bates love affair with pyrotechnics. Year 2 had us building some sets and adding new scenes. The hayride was still simple but was growing. One thing I have always loved is good music. I put myself through college by installing car sound systems. So, with my electronic experience, we installed cassette decks on the tractors and recorded a movie like soundtrack that set the tone for each scene. The beauty of this also worked as a timing mechanism so the tractor driver would go the same speed throughout the trail. It also puts the customer on edge and that allows our actors to easily scare them. Over the years the sound systems have become high tech, but the same timing applies. We now run 14 wagons and with this timing system we can run them 90 seconds apart and every wagon load feels like they are the only one in the woods. They can’t see the wagon in front or back of them.
So, my friend Mike decided to add fire to our witches’ scene. With a huge cast iron kettle surrounded by stones in the shape of a pentagram, Mike built a system that, when activated, pumped propane into the bottom of the kettle that was filled with water. The top would start to bubble then burst into flames. The water caught fire. Meanwhile, my friend Ed Worrell acted as the Mummy. Now Ed was very particular about his part, and just about anything else. He came to my wife Anne and said he needed his costume repaired…it had some loose bandages. Of course, we all laughed at him. And so did the customers. He was called toilet paper man and my favorite – Tampon man! Ed took it well. This was the year that we added the flying Dracula scene. We stretched a steel cable between two trees on opposite sides of the trail. Then add two drop cables in the center. We built platforms with ladders on each tree so the actor could climb down slowly, then fly over the wagon. It was an awesome scene. Kurt and Sam took turns flying. I remember when Kurt was on. He slowly climbed down the ladder, hissing and growling, dressed like Dracula. Some kid on the wagon yelled out “Hey Dracula, you suck!” Kurt, not missing a beat, straightened up and yelled back just as he launched over the wagon “I suck BLOOD!” and he flew.
In 1990 my friend Ric Hatton and I started a burglar and fire alarm company. Logically, he also worked the hayride. With our electronics background we were able to use alarm components to activate lights, sounds and animatronics in the show. The first couple of years the hayride averaged several thousand customers, but we were only charging two dollars per person. It was covering costs but not really making money. 1992 saw us working a deal with Halloween Adventure, a local mask and costume company that had about twenty stores. The owner gave us a two-thousand-dollar shopping spree in exchange for tickets to the hayride. This helped us get quality masks and costumes for the show. During these early years, I would walk the hayride trail making sure everyone was ok, and distributed beers to my friends. Of course, that would never work today.
Over the next couple of years, we raised our prices and added new, larger sets, and by 1995 our attendance reached twenty thousand customers. We were now making some bucks. We had developed our attraction in a total vacuum, not knowing about other attractions or haunted hayrides, and that made our ride unique.
In early 1996 I received an invitation to the Transworld Halloween Trade show In Chicago. I was a little skeptical at first but decided to attend. That was one of the best decisions we made. They had a huge convention center filled with animatronics, props, masks, makeup, costumes and everything related to the Halloween haunted attraction industry. They also had a series of seminars about how to open, operate and market attractions. I was ready to learn from the pillars of the Haunt community and grow my business. Leonard Pickle taught how to build a haunted house. Joe Jensen, who ran a huge haunt in Chicago taught seminars. And I finally ended up taking a seminar on Haunted Hayrides. I’m sitting next to a guy who ran Charlie Browns Christmas tree farm in Connecticut. He also did a haunted hayride using antique tractors. The fellow giving the seminar came on and started by saying that they stopped running hayrides, and the best way to keep your customers happy was to throw crap at them. Things like small, plastic spiders, candy, and other “junk”. Me, being forward, asked why he stopped doing hayrides. He told us the trucks kept getting stuck. I laughed and said to my friend “he’s using trucks to pull his wagons”. The guy giving the seminar heard me and said, “no we didn’t pull wagons” I was stunned. This guy was putting people in the bed of a pickup and calling it a hayride. At this point, I realized that we had a pretty good attraction, and were ahead of most hayrides.
After taking Leonard’s seminar on haunted houses and picking the heads of other haunt owners such as Joe Jensen and John Denley, I came home with plans to build my own haunted house; the Bates Motel was born. The first thing I did was contact my attorney to see if I could call it the Bates Motel. He checked for trademarks. Then he told me since it was my name, I could use it. In 2004 we trademarked Bates Motel and it proved to be huge when Universal Studio tried to sue us in 2010 over their TV series of the same name. We came out on top.
So, 1996 saw us build a 3500 square foot “barn” that morphed into the Bates Motel. Our theory was to load customers into a side door and exit into our courtyard. This way, our hayride customers hanging out at the bonfires would see people come out screaming. It worked, but we had to give away a ton of free tickets to get people to start going thru the house.
So, in 1996, steps in Mark Grunwell. He worked for an electronic company that specialized in computer-controlled devices. Mark was instrumental in setting up the control system that operated the lighting, sound and props in the haunted house. Working with Mark, we built wall panels, Sam and the build crew painted them, and we hired more actors and staff. My wife, Anne, ran the one window ticket box office. After the opening weekend, I realized that we needed a bigger ticket booth. Along came Tyson Cooper, a good carpenter but lousy electronics guy. He had worked for a high-end sound company that provided huge sound systems for large concerts at stadiums around the country. Tyson and I were building out the new ticket booth around two AM, pretty much in the bag, when a State Trooper stopped by. He wanted to make sure we weren’t driving! This was our breakout year that put us squarely in the Haunt community. And along with Tyson came John Brady, who toured with Bon Jovi as a sound tech. He brought along his expertise with sound and lighting. Later, his wife, Kelly would manage our concession stand.
Everything was going great. We were making money and paying bills. All staff were on payroll now and we had several full-time guys working on the haunt. Then, Friday, September 28th, I got a notice from my Township. “You are in violation of your agricultural zoning. Cease and desist all attractions on your property”. Now I’m freaking out as all our flyers have been put out, all radio marketing had started, staff were hired and placed, and they want me to shut down. We had spent tens of thousands of dollars getting ready and if we shut down it would ruin us. My friend and attorney, Dave Mallman, told me we had thirty days to appeal; go ahead and open, then try to get a zoning change in November. It worked. We had the best year to date, then set up a conditional use hearing with the board of supervisors in November. The board grilled me about the business, asking how many parking spaces we have, how many portable toilets, how many two-way radios, how many security staff and parking lot staff. I answered honestly and explained our operations. They then wrote an “Agritourism” ordinance that basically included everything I had told them. We were now legal in the Township.
1998 was a year of change. Mark Grunewll had a heart attack in February and told me he could not work that year. Around the same time, I became friends with Todd Beringer, who had just moved into the community and joined the fire company. Todd was the general manager for a very large bakery in Philadelphia and knew a lot about automation. He brought in another mechanical engineer named Nick Ostensacken, and between the two of them, cleaned up the wiring mess in the Bates Motel. Another newbie was Casey Grant. Casey worked for a disaster refurbishing business and was a very talented carpenter. Casey became our lead set builder, and our first real full-time employee.
The attractions kept growing with more sets, props and actors each year. New trails were constructed turning the 18-minute ride into a full 25 minutes. More tractors and wagons were added. Better sound equipment was installed, and the soundtrack was recorded in a professional sound studio owned by Bobby Zieglar. The 18’ wagons were traded in for 24’ wagons, and we added steps to a few of them.
In 2000, we decided to add a third attraction. This would be a walking trail in a corn field. We called it a corn maze, but it’s really a trail where you cannot get lost. Some attractions do a haunted maze, but I wanted people to go through it as fast as possible. To me, throughput is essential to economic growth. So, we cut the trail, built a couple of walk-through buildings, added scarecrows and a sound system. That, along with 15 actors, cost us about $20,000. This attraction was a huge success with over 25,000 attending at $5 per ticket. This was also the year we began using online ticket sales. Back then it was a small percentage of our ticket sales. We also started getting sponsorships. The local Ford dealer became a large sponsor, and the Halloween Adventure shops were also sponsors.
In the middle of the 2000 haunt season, a new bar/restaurant opened ¼ mile away. It immediately became our go to place after closing. Our customers all went there, and Duffer’s Tavern was overwhelmed. We became great friends with Mike and Frank Slachta, the owners, and to this day we have an awesome relationship. We send them thousands of customers every September and October and they give us our employee appreciation party in November; 4 hours of buffet and open bar for over 350 people.
2001 was a strange year. After 9/11, many haunted attractions did not open. We decided to change some things and open, creating a charity for some of the victims. For the last several years, we had an animated hanging woman that would pop out from a second-floor balcony window and hang herself. This was like the nurse maid in the movie the Omen. This year, we kept the nightgown, added sandals, a turban and beard, and charged customers five bucks to hang Osama. All proceeds went to a friend whose husband died in tower two, and the wife of the pilot from flight 93, who lives nearby. The reaction was amazing with people handing over twenties to push the button. We raised over $7,000.
This was also our best year to date as the weather was perfect. The only year with no rainouts. It was also a year of change. We stopped hosting bands because it kept people here longer which caused the parking lot to overflow. We also stopped the bonfires for the same reason. We blamed the bonfire issue on the dry weather, and the bands on noise ordinance.
So, now we had a great group of talented construction guys, artists, electricians and actor managers. We would attend Transworld trade show and get ideas from other haunters and prop manufacturers. After collecting these ideas, we would sit down and start design work for the next season. Some of these people would come up with some cool ideas that may not be practical or cost effective. I would be the one to approve or knock down these ideas. Someone would come up with a new room in the Bates Motel. I would always ask “OK, where’s the scare?” or “How can we build this, so it works 250 times a night for 30 nights?”. Some guys would get upset if I didn’t like their idea. One of them was Casey. He hated it when I shut him down, but I was the practical voice at the table.
Over the years we have had some great actors join our team. I remember one warm day in August when a young woman walked up the driveway. She told me that her parents had moved to Michigan, and she had lost her place to scare people on Halloween. She said her name was Alicia Newton, but everyone calls me Harley. She also said that she had a two-headed calf in a jar. Wow! My kind of gal. I hired her on the spot. Harley was finishing up her 11th year of college at Penn University. Four years of pre-med vet school, four years Vet school, and three years of specialized school learning about all animals. She was a veterinarian that was going to specialize in Zoo animals as the coroner. She later worked for the Philadelphia Zoo, then the San Diego zoo, and finally as a vet for Disney. Harley talked about doing an autopsy on a full size Rhino, using a chain saw. Harley Liked to fly. We had a flying rig over our hayride trail for many years, and that was the position she wanted. It’s a tough spot as it chafes your body, but she loved it.
Another actor was Tim Cook. He insisted on running the chainsaw. He was there for over 10 years before moving on. Dominic DiValerio was also another hit. Dominic would design and build his own rooms and costumes. One year he built an electric chair that was hinged to the floor. He’d activate the system with sound, fog and strobe lights, then tilt forward and chase the customers. Another year we built a 13th Ghost room, and he was the Jackal. Dominic built the head cage himself. Dom was funny because his daytime job was as an optician. He used to say that he had to be nice to customers for 11 months, then, with unrecognizable masks or makeup, scare the hell out of them in October.
In 2004, I helped form a Haunt group called America Haunts. It started as five of the larger haunted attractions across the country. We would meet and exchange ideas, make group buys and promote our attractions. Over the next 4 years we added several more members. It is an invitation only group and there are specific criteria to be a member. This was around the time when Bates Motel started making the top 13 lists. It’s exciting to see your attraction listed in the Wall Street journal, or CNN Travel. We were getting noticed on a national level. Also, around this time, a young guy named John Walsh came on as an actor in the haunted Trail. His mother, Thelma was an actress and his stepdad, Charlie Conrad managed the trail. John later took over as the IT guy and really put us on the cutting edge. John still works here managing the Haunted Trail as well as keeping our internet and sound systems operational. Last year, we added 72 HD cameras, a server, and a complete sound system throughout the entire property. John also set up our point-of-sale system and Photo Touch camera systems where customers can buy photos of themselves.
This was also the same time that some of my children began working for us. My older son, Drew brought in several of his Scout buddies, that worked as actors in the hayride. My daughter, Angela, worked in Human resources hiring staff and managing actor placement. Daughter Katie acted as the headless horseman for several years. Daughter Veronica acted in the hayride and then helped in the concession stand and younger son, Ben was an actor fill-in, going to different scenes as needed. Our youngest daughter, Diana, would go on to manage our escape rooms and Laser tag facility. My wife, Anne, still handles all the finances; bills, payroll, bank accounts, etc. however, Veronica is being groomed to take over this aspect of the business.
In 2006 A couple of brothers stopped by in August and said they wanted to work for us. They live in North Philadelphia, about an hour away. They said they had worked for another haunt called Scare Brothers, but they wanted to work here. I asked why and they said they thought we were the best in the area and that their old employers didn’t give them the resources to do a professional job. I called Scare Brothers, and they said that these guys couldn’t finish a job on time. So, I decided to give them a shot. Shawn and Rob Sieger became a huge part of our business over the years. Both still work here today as makeup artists and set designers. This was also the year that I fired Casey. That summer, about 12 of my hayride actors said they weren’t coming back. I wanted to know why. One guy told me that the last year, Casey had been a terrible manager and they didn’t want to work under him. Since he only knew carpentry, I told him if something wooden breaks, fix it. I then put my son Ben in charge of the hayride. All those actors came back, and they were more than happy with the change. At the end of the season, it was obvious that Casey needed to go. Shawn and Rob were amazed that I had just fired our construction manager. A month later, Chris Malloy showed up. He was an out of work machinist, and a good carpenter. He stepped right into Casey’s position, running the build crew and managing the hayride. Our attraction got better because of that. It seemed that whatever the reason, when one manager left, another person would show up and improve our team.
As the years went by, the attractions became more intricate, more realistic and more expensive. In 2010, Ben graduated from Universal Technical Institutes with degrees in Auto mechanics, Diesel mechanics and hydraulics. In his cap and gown, Ben told us he wanted to work for the company. He came on full-time as the build crew manager and has done an outstanding job. The great thing about having a mechanic on staff is that he can service the tractors and wagons. Ben also began building custom animatronic props while Shawn, Cosimo and the rest of the art team would decorate them.
In 2012 We hired Interactive Ticketing to run our online sales. I had contacted several online ticketing companies, but IT gave me the best deal. I soon became friends with the owners, Dave Arevello and Terry Howisey. Both guys were from Sacramento and were big time into wine. They gave us a great deal and we’ve been using them ever since.
Over the many years that we have been in business, customers and staff have gotten engaged and married on the farm. One guy called me in May and wanted to setup a date to ask his girlfriend to marry him. It was all planned out. We were going to do the deed in the haunted trails mausoleum. The guy brought his girl and another couple that was in on the deal. They were let into the trail by themselves, then the next group was held up for several minutes. When they entered the mausoleum, the doors closed, and they were trapped. One actor came out with a shotgun (non-firing), kicked the guy behind his knee, forcing him to kneel. Pointing the gun at this fellow’s head, Shawn yelled “You got something to say, boy”. The second actress, who flies overhead, spun over and dropped the box with the ring. He proposed and she said yes, although she was shaking with fear! Fortunately, we had a film crew there and they got it all on tape. If you want to see it go to YouTube and search Bates Motel wedding proposal.
Other people who met here was Mike Sankevitch and Little Ann. He oversaw the parking lot, and Ann ran the concession stand. They met here and a few years later married and moved to South Carolina. Before that, Cousin Bill Bruce and wife Margaret worked parking and concessions.
For several years, things were cranking along. Good friends, good seasons and a lot of satisfied customers. I concentrated more on the marketing end of the business, Ben and the build crew were banging out new additions, and my wife Anne was tackling the tough job of CFO, chief financial officer, paying bills, running payroll and everything else in between.
Then in 2019, Chris Malloy retired due to severe arthritis in his hands and feet. He was just 50 years old but couldn’t stand for more than fifteen minutes. In comes Chris Knight, my new Son-In-Law. Chris married Daughter Diana and they now have three children. Chris was another upgrade as he had lots of experience in construction, metal work and electrical works. Diana was a huge part of the business, helping in the concession stand and managing the Escape Room and Laser Tag business that Ben and I started in 2016. So, 2019 was one of the best years to date, with over 50,000 customers attending. And around this time, an actor, Garrett Sapsis, joined the full time build crew. He cut his hair, got rid of the piercings and became an integral part of the team.
Many seasons had issues. Traffic jams and full parking lots were a big problem. Neighbors complained and State Troopers would ask us to close the lots when the traffic hit one-hour backups. 2020 solved all these problems. March 13, 2020 was the beginning of the Covid 19 lockdown. Everything stopped. Our escape rooms were closed for five months. We had no idea if the hayride could open that year. Transworld was cancelled. We shut down all new set construction and laid off full time employees. Everything shut down. In mid-August, our governor came out and said if there are outdoor events, that could open provided there were a maximum of 5 people per one thousand square feet of space. Hell, we had eighty-two acres! I could host thousands.
So, this is how we delt with Covid. First, we went to all timed ticketing and only online sales. This alleviated the traffic and parking issues. We went to a one price for all three attractions. This increased income as we eliminated child tickets, ala cart tickets and changed to a linear show. We set up a security checkpoint where everyone was funneled to. Customers went through metal detectors operated by off duty Sheriffs who did this at the courthouse. Customers had their temperature taken, then moved into queue lines that were doubled in size to allow social distancing. Red tape was added to the rope in the queue in six-foot intervals. Hand sanitizers were everywhere. Customers were asked to wear masks. All actors and staff wore masks. This eliminated the makeup costs and staff, saving more money. Actors were trained to stay back from customers. Since you can’t socially distance on a hay wagon, we changed the hayride into a walking trail. Funny thing was that when ran the hayride, it took about twenty-six minutes. When the customers walked the trail, it took them sixteen minutes. Since we were utilizing timed ticketing, we were able keep the queue lines down to a minimum. Some customers who were out of shape needed help going up the hills at the end of the trail. So, we had an EMT staff manning the hill with a golf cart. Chris Knight found a street sign that read “Asthma Hill’ and proudly hung it from a tree at the bottom of the hill.
2020 saw us go to a linear format. Customers went through the screening, walked the hayride trail, went through the Revenge of the Scarecrows haunted trail and then into the Bates Motel. We limited the concession stand to simple food and removed the picnic tables, basically forcing customers to get something to eat, then leave the property. In the past, Friday nights were kiddie city. Parents would drop off teens and come back for them around 11. Covid put a stop to that. We told the kids they had to call for a ride or leave the property. All these things made our business much more efficient. More income, more profit, fewer staff and less payroll all added up to 2020 being the best year to date. This was also the year that CNN travel named us the number one haunted attraction in America.
2021 was just another repeat of 2020. Same setup, same ticketing, same walking trail. More customers. This year, America Haunts named us as the most entertaining haunted attraction in the country. This brought out a frenzy of local and national media. Every TV station in Philadelphia came out for live segments, interviews and background videos, CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox news and more all showed off the Bates Motel that year. And this made 2021 the best year to date; even better than 2020.
Over the last two years we didn’t make many changes to the hayride trail. 2021 saw us refurbish seven rooms the Bates Motel, which took many months. In 2022 our team decided to make big changes to the hayride. This was the year that we hired Dewey. He’s a young guy with good construction experience. His real name is Evan, but when you work for Ben, you always get a nickname. Dewey’s name was derived from another guy who worked here the year before. Evan Dumont worked for a couple years. So, we couldn’t call him Evan, and Dumont was nicknamed by his last name therefore new Evan became Dumont, then shortened to Dewey. Also, at this time we hired Gianna full-time to run the art department. She had been working for us for ten years as an actress and makeup artist. Gianna was instrumental in decorating and painting the new rooms in the Bates Motel and the new western scene.
As Covid was winding down, we decided to bring back the Hayride. This was the main attraction here and customers wanted to ride again. We started by rebuilding the hayride entrance, the castle scene. A neighbor had a bunch of 35’ Steel lamp posts used in parking lots. Another friend up north had access to thousands of feet of chain link fencing that was removed from tennis courts. We have our own commercial spray foam machine used to insulate buildings. So, the build team made the huge castle that you see in the photos. Along with the castle, we decided to build a western town. Back in the 90’s we had a western village that had some great scares and details. That was abandoned when the asylum scene was built. Cosimo designed the buildings and with Gianna, and Dewey, it came to life. Wanting to add some realism, I went overboard buying covered wagons and stagecoaches from the Amish in Lancaster, PA. Full size horses and steers were purchased from Texas and installed throughout the scene. There’s a lot of inside jokes throughout our attractions; ones that only we know. Cos decided to name the stores and buildings after my in-laws. For example, Minacci Brothers Gun shop. The second building in this scene is a two-story hotel and saloon. Before, construction we had a film crew shooting a commercial. So, we set up a saloon scene in Ben’s shop and shot a thirty second bar fight scene, with pretty saloon gals and a bunch of cowboys. We even had Dave Davis swinging one handed from a wagon wheel chandelier with a beer in his hand. After building the scene, we added scrim to the downstairs windows and to the second-floor window. Then we projected the videos of Dave swinging on the second floor and the bar fight on the first-floor windows. It worked out better than I could have hoped for.
2022 saw us bringing back the hayride and adding a lot of new actors and staff. Coved was about over and customers came out in large numbers. The changes that we implemented stayed in place except for the social distancing and mask wearing. Makeup came back and actors could go after the customers again. This turned out to be the best season ever and our team is already working hard on new additions for 2023.
