The Heritage Haunt
Halloween Haunted House
Hart Park – Heritage Junction
24101 San Fernando Road, Newhall, CA 91322
Website: www.scvhaunt.com
Want to enjoy a genuine haunted Halloween in Los Angeles? Check out Heritage Haunt, a seasonal attraction set in an allegedly haunted house.
Read Heritage Haunt updates here.
HERITAGE HAUNT 2012 DATES & HOURS: October 13, 19-20, 26-28, from 6:30pm to 10pm
HERITAGE HAUNT 2012 TICKETS: $15.
HERITAGE HAUNT PARKING: Free
2012 SPECIAL EVENTS:
- October 13: a Pumpkin Festival rom 10am to 2pm, followed by a zombie march at 6pm.
- October 20: a Haunted Car Show starting at 6pm.
HERITAGE HAUNT 2012 UPDATE: After going on hiatus for 2011, Heritage Haunt returns for Halloween 2012, with a smaller attraction centered around the Newhall Ranch House – an allegedly real-life haunted location that served as the focus of the Heritage Haunt until behind-the-scenes problems forced a change in 2010, eventually leading to the haunt’s closure for a year. The plan for 2012 is recreate real haunted house experience, emphasizing the authentic atmosphere that made Heritage Haunt stand out at its best. “Our Goal is to be distinctive and a provide unique experience for our visitors,” says Ed Marg, of the Santa Clarita Historical Society, which presents the haunt as a fund-raising effort.
HERITAGE HAUNT FEATURES: This Halloween attraction has some of the authentic feel of the old Haunted Vineyard; the Newhall Ranch House is allegedly really haunted, and at its best the haunt cleverly exploits the legends of the ghost purpotedly residing there. Put on by the Santa Clarita Historical Society, the Heritage Haunted House has been maintained to preserves the history of the local area, which was both a mining community and later the location for filming early silent cowboy movies starring William S. Hart.
HERITAGE HAUNT HISTORY: Heritage Haunt began in 2007 when several home haunters donated sets, props, and/or manpower to the non-profit Santa Clarita Historical Society, turning the Newhall Ranch House into a professional-quality walk-through haunt. Based on actual legends of the old Western mining community in the area, the 2008 incarnation of the annual Halloween attraction was titled Curse of the Ghoul Mine. With an eerie soundtrack, the emphasis was on making your skin crawl rather than on making you jump out of your skin – although there was some of that as well, accomplished both by actors in makeup and by mechanical props lurching up like malevolent Jack-in-the-Boxes.
The 2009 expanded edition was themed Nightmares of Newhall, adding several other features such as mini-mazes and a yard-haunt-type pirate ghost ship display. Other historical buildings on the premises were inhabited by ghouls, creating outdoor scare zones. 2010 featured a lengthy hayride, but the Newhall Ranch Haunted House was reduced from a walk-through to a single seance scene – a major disappointment.
After this, the rumor was that the Heritage Haunt would not return, because of behind-the-scenes difficulties over permits and permissions (which put the kibosh on the haunted Ranch House). In 2011, many of the crew moved on to a new Halloween event: Horror Valley High School, in Santa Clarita. However, Heritage Haunt did not slip quietly into the grave; instead, it promised to return in 2012 – on a smaller scale, closer to its previous incarnations, and best of all – with the Newhall Ranch House once again the centerpiece.
HERITAGE HAUNT ARCHIVAL INFORMATION:
A smattering of hillside tombstones at Heritage Haunt
This Halloween event offered numerous attractions from 2007 through 2010…
- Skeleton Seance in the Newhall Ranch House, formerly the haunted house attraction highlight of Heritage Haunt. NOTE: There is no walk-through haunted house in 2010. There is only one room with an animatronic skeleton performing a seance.
- The Hayride of Nightmares: This takes advantage of the rural location, which is dark and spooky all on its own.
- Indian Trails: a scare zone.
- Chewy’s Pirate Cove: an expanded scare zone from last year.
- Graveyard: another scare zone, this one centered around some authentic old western homes and a school house that form a dark little cul-de-sac, from which escape is difficult, if not impossible…
- “Alice in Scaryland” – a ballet performed by New World Dance Productions
- Murphy’s Saloon: if you are too timid to brave the haunt yourself, you can watch your terrified friends on closed circuit television as they walk through the haunt.
- Live bands at the Saugus Train Station.
- Pumpkin & Bluegrass Festival: Pumpkin Carving Contest, Creepy Bug Show, daylight hayride, makeup how-to, ghost hunter show
- A Night in Heritage Junction: This special event, hosted by the American Paranormal Research Association, took visitors on an all-night paranormal investigation of Heritage Junction.
NOTE: We group Heritage Haunt along side professional haunted house attractions because they charge admission and the event is of similiar quality; however, this is a non-profit event, staffed by volunteers, benefitting the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society.
