Bay Arts Council Haunted Temple at Masonic
Spooky Starts Here
October 16, 2011
By: Diane Szczepanski
Volunteer or spooky apparition? You be the judge...
Looking for some serious goosebumps and creep factor?
The Haunted Temple at Bay City's Historic Masonic Temple may be just the place you're looking for during the Halloween season.
"This is an interactive, psychological thriller" said Matt Reid, Director of Bay Arts Council. "There's a mystery to be solved this year, so pay close attention when walking thru." he added.
Reid anticipates 1800 people will go through this October. The Haunted Temple event is a fundraiser for restoration and operation of the impressive, historic building.
Many adults, high school, middle school and even a few elementary school children, compromise the team of volunteers staging spooky scenes.
Whimsical yet creepy characters in a turn of the century building, adds to the overall eerie ambiance of the experience.
It takes at least 2 weeks for the staging of this event and it's not hard to see why. The Arts Council used the natural characteristics of the building to it's best advantage, when planning the scenes and the tour route.
"It's not hard to imagine there may have been a few real spirits walking through with us and it was really quite spooky feeling." remarked Sandy Schaffer, who came to enjoy the experience.
The 17 minute tour is lead by volunteer tour guides and is recommended for 8 years of age and up.
Tours run October 14-15, 21-22 and 28-29 from 7:00pm-11:00pm. Admission is $10 for adults, $6.00 for students (with ID) and seniors over 65.
The Masonic is located at 700 N. Madison at Center Ave.
For more information, check out their website at:
www.hauntedtemple.com
**(An interesting side-note to this story: Many pictures were taken for this story, with a good quality camera. The one you see is the only one that came out fairly decently.
Many of the photos took during the tour would not turn out at all. Most that did turn out, even if just somewhat, when I attempted transferring onto my computer, had a white filmy look to them and many light spots.
My computer crashed 3 times while trying to download them onto it. Coincidence?? Or did some one or some thing, not want their picture published? Hhmmm...)