PALOUSE, Wash. — The city of Palouse is home to approximately 1,000 people, but in October the small town becomes a tourist attraction. A group of volunteers transforms their local museum into a haunted house that raises thousands of dollars annually.
"There's so many good things about Haunted Palouse," Janet Barstow, Haunted Palouse veteran volunteer, said.
Barstow and her friend Paula Echanobe started volunteering to construct the haunted house 18 years ago during the attraction's inaugural year.
It started as a way to raise money to renovate Palouse's museum on Main Street. That first year raised $3,000 for the town, and both Barstow and Echanobe were ecstatic about the result.
Since then the haunted house has grown immensely, raising $70,000 in 2017.
"It was so amazing," Echanobe said.
Most of the money raised comes from outside visitors who drive into town specifically to attend the haunted maze.
Over the years, the money has helped to fund the town's playground, skate park and community center. Barstow said that without the money from Haunted Palouse the community center would have never been built.
"To do those kind of things for the community makes you feel really good to be a part of," Barstow said.
Putting on the attraction takes countless hours of hard work from the volunteers. Both Barstow and Echanobe have dedicated every weekend of October for the past 18 years to putting the scary maze together.
"You know, you don't get your yard work done. We're farmers so we're behind on fall work," Barstow said.
Despite the hard work, both women have enjoyed the time they have spent working at Haunted Palouse.
"It's been fun to do it for so many years because we've been doing it for so long," Echanobe said.
But this year, the two women are retiring. This will be their last year running Haunted Palouse. The tradition will still continue after their retirement, just with new people running the show.
Barstow said she will be crying on her last day running the maze, and the moment will be bittersweet.