Saturday, October 30, 1999
Haunted paper factory has fearsome debut
BY DAVID ECK
Enquirer Contributor
LEMON TOWNSHIP — Maybe the “haunted mill” is too scary. In its debut as a Halloween attraction this year, a long-closed paper mill has suffered repeated damage to walls from visitors trying to get away.
While most businesses wouldn't appreciate customers damaging walls and fixtures, it's a good sign for Toby Baker.
“If we've got people running through the walls, that means we're doing our jobs,” he said.
Customers don't intend to cause damage, but get too fearful of some of the scenes that feature live actors who appear to threaten them, Mr. Baker said.
Some people have had anxiety attacks, while others have flatly refused to go in.
“We start off intense and keep it intense,” he said.
Mr. Baker has security people stationed inside the mill, and police officers patrol the grounds.
Since July, Mr. Baker, of Middletown, has been building walls, installing laser lights and creating spooky scenes — transforming the abandoned Harding-Jones paper plant.
Visitors go through a maze of 20 rooms during a 25-minute walk through the mill. The trek has three chain saws, an execution scene, a 30,000-watt stereo and dozens of laser beams piercing the darkness.
Displays take up about 10,000 square feet of the rambling, old brick building. It takes 25 people to work the mill and accommodate the 2,000 people that visit it each weekend.
One of those workers is Stan Froman of Middletown, a friend of Mr. Baker's for years.
“It's a fun environment for everybody,” Mr. Froman said. “You know you put on a good show when guys run away leaving their girlfriends inside.”
A former motorcycle repair shop owner, Mr. Baker said he has found a calling and is looking to buy his own building for a haunted house — one that he can work on all year.
Built in the mid-1800s, the paper plant was closed in 1990. Several of the plant's old pulp holding tanks are incorporated into the haunted mill, and the ivy-coverd plant along a dark road makes for a good setting, Mr. Baker said.
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TRISTATE DIGEST
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Water deal for Mason
