Thank you!
Your support is sustaining the future of local news in our communities.

Volunteers prepare Haunted Fortress for autumn scares

Volunteers prepare Haunted Fortress for autumn scares

Greg Arent of Clinton Corners tours Stanford’s Haunted Fortress, inspecting the attraction for needed maintenance and upkeep.

Photo by Brian Hess

STANFORDVILLE — Throughout August and September, in the woods off Creamery Road in Stanfordville, volunteers are needed to cut back overgrowth, repair sets, and prepare the Haunted Fortress for its October opening.

Greg Arent, a Clinton Corners resident who serves as the leader of the haunted attraction’s volunteers, is spending weekends in the latter half of the summer prepping for the coming fall. Volunteers are encouraged to join through August and September on Sundays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

In the summer, Stanfordville’s Haunted Fortress nearly disappears into the landscape. There are no lights, no actors, no sounds aside from birds and insects. Pathways vanish behind trees and structures sag under vines. What will become a carefully orchestrated maze of fear feels, instead, like something abandoned.

“We let Mother Nature take care of everything,” Arent said, gesturing toward the overgrowth. There is no mowing, weeding, or pruning in the summer. “By October this will all be dead.”

As he steps onto the swamp walk — the winding path visitors take before entering the Fortress — it’s quiet enough to hear his footsteps.

Arent, the head of operations for the Haunted Fortress, brings a background in set-building to the role. “I know some people don’t love Halloween,” he said with a shrug. “But to us, it’s just different.”

The Fortress unfolds as a series of spaces stitched together along a winding path — houses, yards, tunnels, and rooms that shift in theme but share the same handmade, slightly off-kilter feel. In October, visitors move through it piece by piece. In summer, it reads more like a landscape of remnants.

And, at the beginning of the tour, sits the pirate ship — one of the last structures built by Peter Wing.

Wing, who died in 2014, created the Haunted Fortress, originally called Frankenstein’s Fortress, in Millbrook in the 1990s before eventually moving it to Stanford. His vision, Arent understands, was less about jump scares and more about atmosphere — “the psychological spooky thing.”

Arent never met Wing, but the Fortress is still full of his presence.

“One of my favorite things Pete Wing did is reclaim and reuse material,” Arent said. Much of what stands here was not bought new, but salvaged and repurposed. It’s a philosophy that continues. “Guys who work at dumps set things aside for me,” Arent said. The Fortress is not polished. It resists symmetry. “There are no straight lines or right angles,” Arent said.

In October, that work becomes visible.

On the best nights, the Fortress runs with 50 or more volunteer actors. There is no audition process; roles — zombies, witches, ghouls, vampires — are assigned. Esther Evans, known locally as the “queen of costumes,” outfits actors with pieces she designs or refurbishes.

Funding comes through the town’s recreation department, but the operation is entirely volunteer-driven. In August and September, volunteers meet on Sundays — workdays dedicated to maintenance, repair, and small-scale construction. The tasks range from the mundane to the complex: roofing, landscaping, rewiring lights, repairing props.

“We definitely need more help,” Arent said. “We’re always looking for volunteers with carpentry skills. But also just whatever people are interested in or curious learning about.”

The work never really stops — planning, building, rehearsing, then performance. This October will include 13 nighttime shows and two sensory-friendly daytime walkthroughs. Then comes cleanup, reflection, and the cycle begins again.

“It is always Fortress season,” Arent said through laughs.

Despite the scale of the operation, much of the Fortress remains structurally unchanged from Wing’s original vision. When Wing’s family visited, years after his death, “they were just happy that we were maintaining his vision,” Arent says.

That vision isn’t always named. Many newer volunteers don’t know Wing’s story. What remains instead are fragments — techniques, structures, even phrases passed down informally. Before the attraction opens each night, Arent reminds actors: “Silence is creepy.” It’s the kind of note that feels less like instruction and more like inheritance.

Why do people keep coming back? Arent laughs at the question. “That’s a question for a psychiatrist.”

But then he answers it anyway. Some come for a scare. Others for the chance to build, to act, to create. One volunteer described it simply: “This is free therapy.”

Families return year after year. Children come as visitors and grow into actors. Others arrive by accident: one year, three women from New York City came as guests, learned it was volunteer-run, and showed up the next night to perform as witches. “They were some of the best witches we had,” Arent laughed.

In the end, the Haunted Fortress is not just a place to be scared. It is a place maintained and reimagined by people who choose, repeatedly, to return to it.

What Wing would recognize if he walked through today is impossible to say. But the materials are still rough, salvaged. The lines still crooked. The atmosphere still built more on suggestion than shock. “We don’t do jump scares,” Arent reminds me.

And the work — the steady, often invisible work of maintaining it — continues.


Sunday volunteering dates

Volunteers can join the maintenance effort on Sundays through August and September from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the following dates:

— Aug. 9
— Aug. 23
— Sept. 13
— Sept. 20
— Sept. 27

The Haunted Fortress is located at 11 Creamery Road in Stanfordville. Email hauntedfortress@stanfordny.gov if interested in volunteering.

Latest News

August, one bass at a time

August, one bass at a time

This fish took a Wooly Bugger in basic black, with rubber legs. Always get the rubber legs.

Patrick L. Sullivan
Largemouth bass are not picky eaters. When engaged they usually dive and tug. Once in a while they leap. They are easily discouraged, however, and after a minute or two come meekly to the net.

Every August I shift gears and head to the ancestral HQ with no electricity, minimal plumbing and a warm-water lake chock-full of largemouth bass, not to mention smallmouth, perch, pickerel and panfish. The largemouth are the main attraction.

I used an antique rowboat for years. Then a canoe, which was awkward to manage solo, especially when the wind picked up.

Keep ReadingShow less
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

An outdoor festival for Broadway fans

An outdoor festival for Broadway fans
An outdoor festival for Broadway fans
An outdoor festival for Broadway fans

Broadway is going way off Broadway when it heads outdoors for The Festival at Hutton Brickyards in Kingston Aug. 14-16, transforming the Hudson River waterfront into a three-day celebration of show tunes, stars and sing-alongs. The inaugural event features an all-star lineup including Audra McDonald, Kelli O’Hara, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Brian Stokes Mitchell and dozens more, along with a 30th anniversary celebration of the musical “Rent” featuring original cast members.

Hutton Brickyards is a former 19th-century brickyard transformed into a historic riverfront hotel and event destination spanning 100 acres along the Hudson. Beyond the nightly concerts, festivalgoers can expect campfire sing-alongs, dance parties, master classes, costume contests and a marketplace highlighting Hudson Valley food, drinks and artisans.

Keep ReadingShow less
Crandell Theatre celebrates 100 years of film, community and Chatham history

The Crandell Theatre in 1948.

Provided
Originally built as an “atmospheric theater,” the Crandell was designed to transport audiences beyond the walls of the auditorium. Its sloped floor, proscenium arch, orchestra pit and balcony seating reflected the grandeur of early 20th-century movie palaces.

Crandell Theatre in Chatham has spent a century bringing stories to the big screen, and this December the historic theater will celebrate its 100th anniversary with a yearlong tribute to the films, filmmakers and community members who have helped keep it alive.

The celebration continues Sunday, Aug. 23, with a special screening of Martin Scorsese’s “The King of Comedy,” presented as part of the theater’s 100th Anniversary Series by Bill Kramer, CEO of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Kramer will introduce the 1982 film, a darkly comic exploration of celebrity, obsession and the pursuit of fame.

Keep ReadingShow less
Arts Connected fundraiser celebrates Northwest Connecticut’s creative community

MOMIX is one of the featured performers at this year’s Arts Connected fundraiser on Aug. 29.

Provided

The Northwest Connecticut Arts Council will celebrate the region’s vibrant arts community with Arts Connected 2026, its annual fundraising event, on Saturday, Aug. 29, from 5 to 8 p.m. at Buck’s Rock Camp in New Milford.

More than a fundraiser, Arts Connected is designed as a celebration of the artists, performers and organizations that make the Northwest Corner’s cultural landscape thrive. Guests can enjoy live music and performances, a curated gallery of artwork by regional artists, local food and drinks, and opportunities to connect with fellow arts supporters. Tickets include hors d’oeuvres, an open bar and all entertainment.

Keep ReadingShow less
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.