Medalta preparing to scare with annual haunted house
Things are getting spooky at Medalta’s brick and tile factory, with ongoing preparations for Saturday’s Haunted Factory event.
The theme for this year’s haunted house — the third year it’s taken place at the brick and tile factory and fourth year overall — is “Circus of Horror.”
Maggie Flynn, Medalta’s museum coordinator, said the goal of hosting a haunted house is to attract new attendees to the museum in a unique way and to show regulars parts they may not have seen.
“We like to come up with creative ways for people to engage with our different sites,” said Flynn. “They get to walk around. They get to discover parts of the factory that they may not have noticed before.
“We also reach out to people who might not necessarily come for a historical tour, but they’ll still get something out of being in the factory.”
The event was the brainchild of Medalta’s Brick and Tile Site committee and the Medicine Hat Youth Action Society.
“We’re all pretty happy to see people getting over there and engaging in different ways,” Flynn said.
“We do so much of the heritage work that we’re not worried about distracting from that.”
Last year’s Haunted Factory attracted about 1,200 people, she said.
Flynn said the brick and tile factory is better suited for a haunted house than the main museum area, where it was held in its inaugural year.
“The brick factory is a lot larger and, quite frankly, a lot creepier,” she said.
The creepy circus theme was chosen by the youth group well before the film adaptation of Stephen King’s “It” about a murderous clown became a box office hit.
“We came up with it in the springtime,” said Flynn. “It wasn’t intentional, but we’re not sad about it.”