Every weekend in October, France Park hosts the Sleepy Hollow, a haunted hayride. This spooky ride makes all who attend shake in their boots. 

Magpie recently attended the haunted hayride as a group, and I believed it was more scary in the ticket booth line than on the ride. The anticipation of riding a supposedly scary ride gives you an eerie feeling. Once you get your ticket, the anxiety rises even more. 

Walking further in the park, you are greeted by a clown who follows you and Michael Myers who creeps in the background. Once in this part of the park, you can get food and drinks. Here, the anxiety gets worse. You can really feel Michael Myers’s eyes digging into your back as you walk to the tractor pull. 

Once you see the pitch-black forest in front of you as you wait for the tractor to start, your heart sinks into your chest. The Haunted Hayride begins.

Eventually, we come upon an attraction that is selling moonshine. Their attraction continues with a family-friendly feel, not really scaring us.

An attraction like the Haunted Hayride gives many people the ability to hide their identity and hide behind a mask. Hayride worker Miaya Smith says working at the Hayride is fun. 

“You get to see and be different and no one knows who you are,” Smith said. “You get to express yourself and scream at people.”

The people who work in attractions like this really do make it scary. However, this ride could be more described as family-friendly, instead of scary. The haunted hayride is not, by any means, a terrifying ride. Some might, however, get jumpscared as I did when the Magpie staff went. 

Attending local events like Sleepy Hollows does more for the community than you think. It shows the organizers and the city that we want more. I think we can all agree, no matter what your stance is on the city, that we could use more events and attractions. Something big for the holidays. Especially for the high schoolers. 

The Haunted Hayride is a fun experience. You can get food and possibly get jumpscared. If not for the experience, help out the local community and support Logansport. To make our community better, we must get involved, and we can start by going to the Haunted Hayride.