On a recent afternoon in
Feasterville, a cool breeze ruffled
the multi colored leaves at
the Phoenix Sport Club on
Bristol Road; the club is the
location of the Valley of Fear
haunted attraction which Tom
Yaegel has operated at this
location for almost 15 years.
The haunted hayride, two
haunted houses and haunted
walking tour nets tens of thousands
of visitors every fall season.
The Valley of Fear has its
beginnings at Stepping Stone
Farm in Buckingham where
Yaegel in the early 1990’s
started operations of the area’s
first widely promoted haunted
hayride. You may even remember
the advertisements featuring
legendary genre actor
Vincent Price.
He got the idea to open a
haunted attraction after reading
about it in an edition of
Entrepreneur Magazine.
Yaegel said he thought, “Hey
this would be popular because
people in Bucks County love
to get scared and love the outdoors.”
The business of scaring people
has changed since Yaegel
entered it in the early 1990’s.
Yaegel said the Valley of
Fear’s busiest nights are
Saturday’s close to Halloween.
The National Research
Federation released figures
early this month that reported
that attendance at haunted
attractions around the nation
was up almost 21 percent compared
to a few years ago. They
credit the rise in attendance
with the downturn in the economy.
Yaegel says it depends on the
year and this year’s figures
seem to be comparable with
last year’s figures, he also says
that weather and Phillies post
season baseball drew people
away from haunted attractions
earlier this month.
The national Haunted House
Association also says business
is up nation-wide due to an
increase in marketing and help
from the internet.
Valley of Fear runs many
radio promotions with different
stations from across the
area. Yaegel estimates that 65
percent of advertising money
for the attraction goes toward
radio advertisements.
Online sales and off-day promotions
like Family Fright
Night, which is a reduced price
ticket bundle which aims to
attract families to come out on
Sunday nights, have lead to a
uptick in business in recent
years.
The Valley of Fear which
employs a few people year
around to run the business,
design and build attractions
recruits more every season to
scare people who visit the
attraction. These are seasonal
employees of whom only two
are under the age of 18, the
others are in their 20’s, 40’s,
50’s and one is even a school
teacher.
On a busy night the attraction
will employ up to 5 makeup
artist, as all the actors wear
make-up to scare people;
today’s crowd
do not find
masks as
f r e i g h t i n g
anymore.
B e t w e e n
Valley of Fear
emp l o y e e s
and Phoenix
Club workers,
some of
whom are
volunt e e r s ,
125 staffers
can be found
on site on a
S a t u r d a y
night scaring
people, selling
tickets,
p r o v i d i n g
s e c u r i t y ,
making food,
driving tractors
and
directing traffic.
“The way we scare people
has changed tremendously in
the past 20 years. The First
year we spent $6,000 on fog
machines and costumes, now it
cost excess of a quarter million
dollars”, said Yaegel.
Yaegel said in the past few
years they have bought large
animatronics to try to scare
people which can cost between
$10,000 to $25,000 each.
This year Valley of Fear
ditched its traditional haunted
house, Miles Manor, and
replaced it with the Zombie
Research and Control Center;
the change was due to the
recent popularity of zombies in
popular culture. The attraction
also offers a haunted pirates
ship wreck in addition to the
hayride and Haunted Tales
Haunted Forrest Walk which is
new for 2010.
Yaegel said each year’s additions
and modifications take,
“several months of preparations.”
He says the facades of the
haunted attractions stay up
year-around but props are
stored at a near-by warehouse.
The Valley of Fear is proud
of its commitment to safety; all
its attractions are inspected by
the state and local fire departments
and must meet code
before being able to open for
the season. Every day the
Valley of Fear team must
inspect the attractions to
ensure safety. Also all the tractor
drivers have years of experience
with farm tractors or
other heavy equipment.
As we speak in a grove of
trees near the ticket booths
Yaegel is quick to point out
that the Valley of Fear is a
local, safe and affordable way
to spend a fall evening for people
of all ages.