Get ready for three nights of frights.
Stroll along East Second Avenue in downtown Durango, and you’ll see horror movie icons appear via projector on the brick wall to the immediate left hand side of the front entrance at Elks Lodge. Venture inside the building, and you’ll come across all kinds of spooky sights.
That’s a mere taste of the bloody fun time residents can have at the organization’s annual haunted house event from 6 to 10 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Halloween.
“There’s a line out of sight. When we open up, there are hundreds of people that come to this every year,” said Elks Lodge’s Jim Turner, who is helping oversee the event. “It’s really successful, especially when this place gets filled with fog.”
On top of different rooms filled with tombstones, cobwebs and other grisly props, the annual spook-fest puts on various themes to keep scary sights fresh – with this year’s theme being a “Night at the Movies.”
“ … That’s kind of how I started to get sucked into it this year,” said Suzanne O’Nan, Elks Lodge’s club manager. “It’s fun for people. It’s different than I think anything else in Durango.”
Patrons can also take selfies in a booth in front of scary backgrounds to post on social media, even winning prizes if they dress in a costume and Elks Lodge deems their attire the night’s best.
This year will mark the downtown Halloween fixture’s eighth, and it’s one of Elks Lodge’s biggest fundraisers, raising money for scholarships, veterans and other causes.
mhollinshead@durangoherald.com
