Most of the time, stories like this do not have a happy ending

Re-Birth of a Dark Ride

Most of the time, stories like this do not have a happy ending. Due to the age of most of the “classic” haunted houses in America – it is typically a poor business decision to restore these rides when age takes its toll. But fear not – this story is different.

Our tale begins in August of 2004 when Chris Giffen, president of Sinister Shadows and his wife, Beth went to William’s Grove Amusement Park to do some research on their classic Pretzel Dark Ride.

Although the ride was working and safe, the props had deteriorated over the years to the point of being totally useless. I want to take this moment to remind everyone that little amusement parks such as this one spend most of their budget in keeping the rides safe for the guests. But the cosmetic part of the park usually suffers. This is in no way to be a poor reflection on the park – it’s just the way these guys have to operate in order to “keep the lights on”.

Since Sinister Shadows is planning their own dark ride, they wrote a letter to Mr. Hughes (owner of William’s Grove) and offered to help rebuild the ride’s props and interior. Soon, Chris was contacted by Justin (Park Manager) and was told to come on down and take a look at what he might be getting into.

It was a gloomy March day when Chris arrived at the park and met Justin and Steve (Park Technician). Not only was it raining outside, but also inside the ride it was raining just as hard. Due to problems with the roof – the interior of the ride was soaked, along with all the track and props. Any other park would have closed the doors to this ride and called it a total loss.

Thankfully, the staff of William’s Grove is quite different. During the meeting, Chris and Justin discussed the many items that needed to be done in order to get the ride back to its original condition. They both committed to the project knowing that the park’s opening day was only a couple of months away… and getting all the work done in time would be quite challenging.

Now - most of this article will focus on the cosmetic aspect of the ride that Sinister Shadows was responsible for – but I would be remiss if I failed to mention that without the support and hard work of the William’s Grove staff, this work would have never been possible. Each person was critical to the success of this project, from Justin (The Park Manager), Steve (Park Technician), Tony (Assistant Technician), to Jim (Park Carpenter). Their work goes largely unnoticed – but very appreciated.

While we were replacing and repairing the props, the staff of William’s Grove was replacing floor boards, fixing the roof, repairing the track and adding additional cars to the ride and many more things the average person will never get to see while they are on the ride.

** Spoiler Alert **

The following information may ruin the ride for you… read on at your own risk!

First off, in the door there was some dead space while your eyes adjust to the darkness. We took this space and added a very brightly glowing skeleton that shakes his cage as you go past…

Next in the ride you will notice one of the many beautiful murals painted by a former park employee. As you can see, some of the artwork was “modified” over the years. We repaired the offending areas, and installed more than 20 new black lights, which made the walls glow like they did 30 years ago.

These pictures do not do any justice to the quality of these paintings – you have to see them to believe it!

Next you will see some of the many cemetery gates and pillars we installed throughout the ride to keep the “creepy” feel and keep some continuity from scene to scene.

We’ve just updated and cleaned many of the scenes in order to keep the ride as original as possible.

ß Old

New à

Some areas, we installed additional props to keep your interest in what use to be “dead” spots. This is one of my favorite illusions where ghosts fly over your head and “into” a vortex at the end of a hallway.

Some of the cosmetics we installed were simply to keep you from seeing ahead of your position, this keeps you from knowing what is coming up in the ride – and while we were at it, why just put up a black wall? This artwork is thanks to Beth who does a great job of making plywood look like real block! Notice how your vision is very limited with the addition of a new wall.

This prop (we call “Saw Guy”) shows the changes from old to new quite well…

And this prop (we call “The Crypt”) can give you a feeling of just how drastically we upgraded the look of these props….

This little prop just lit up - we replaced it with a graveyard scene that has a pop-up head at the end.

Some of the props were just cleaned up and repaired back to working condition….

This little guy used to just sit in a well, now he jumps out at you…

A picture of our favorite prop – the crank ghost. One of the most “real” ghosts you will ever see!

This was the first prop we reconditioned. This prop had its head torn off due to years of it pounding into the wall. (The axle bearing had failed and had never been replaced.) Using what was left of the body – he was totally reconstructed with a new lifelike fiberglass head – what a difference a few weeks makes…

You may also notice that all the chicken wire was removed from the props. Why would we do that? Well, the ride is working better than ever so the cars don’t stop like they did before – and that should help keep people in the cars. Secondly – we installed a new night-vision security system so the operator can monitor the riders at all times. This idea was thanks to our dear friend Tom Gore, who has his own haunted house in Oklahoma. Now while riders are in line, they will notice that they are being watched… and hopefully behave themselves better!

If they don’t notice the monitor – they will notice the new witch we installed outside that has an audio repeater that reminds people of the ride rules and that they are being monitored. By the way, the witch is connected to a new digital Dolby sound system that is also installed throughout the ride. Now riders will also experience a beautiful audio soundtrack while riding Dante’s Inferno.

Many more surprises await you at Dante’s Inferno – with more than 20 stunts, we can’t possibly list them all. Treat yourself to a classic ride unlike any other and a park that lives up to the way things were “in the Good Old Days” and make a trip to William’s Grove this year – it’s worth the trip!