Despite a wintery Sunday, the Atlas Coal Mine is ecstatic with the turnout at this year’s Haunted Coal Mine.
Over the past two weekends, over 1,200 visitors braved the Big and Little Boos.
“It’s up from last year and one of our better years. I expect we raised over $10,000, which goes back to the restoration of the tipple,” said Jay Russell, with the Atlas Coal Mine.
The first weekend was quite strong. Just under 400 people attended the Big Boo on the evening of October 19 and a further 300 the following afternoon. The numbers swelled even more on October 26 for the second, and final, Big Boo, with over 600 visitors. The weather for them could not have been better.
The Haunted Coal Mine was as scary as ever, delighting over 1,200 visitors this year, despite some early snow on Sunday, October 27. Organizers are already thinking of new ways to frighten people next year for the tenth anniversary of the Haunted Coal Mine.
“The last one was perfect. We had people coming right up to 9 o’clock,” said Russell. “I’ve already put an order in for excellent weather next year.”
However, things turned snowy the next day for the final Little Boo and 71 people turned up.
“It was quite good, but we were disappointed in the weather on Sunday. Our numbers that day were lower than we would’ve liked, but higher than what we expected!” said Russell. “The plus side was that it gave us a lot more time to spend with each person and have some fun.”
Not only did the numbers attest to the success of the Haunted Coal Mine, the comments showed the scares were as good, if not better, than last year.
“When the kids go by and say ‘that was scary!’, I know we did a good job. There were other comments, saying they had a great time and it was scarier than before,” said Russell.
The Haunted Coal Mine is the Atlas’ largest fundraising event. The money raised goes towards maintaining and restoring the site.
“This is our single biggest fundraising activity we do each year and it couldn’t be done without the volunteers. We had around 70 volunteers and what a great, dedicated group of people to take time out of their lives and scare people,” said Russell.
Even though the Haunted Coal Mine is over, organizers are already thinking ahead to next year. They are cooking up something big in light of the Haunted Mine’s tenth anniversary.
“Next year will be our tenth year. We’ve been very lucky this has been so successful,” said Russell. “We have some evil cunning going to happen next year.”
