RECAP:  Legend has it that a tanker truck and a school bus collided on Halloween night back in 1958 inside the tunnel on what was at the time State Route 75!  A fiery explosion occurred and the souls of children that were burnt in the collision were trapped in the tunnel forever haunting it to this day!  The thoroughfare was boarded up shortly after the crash and never used again!  That was until the Lions Club re-opened it as a Halloween Event!  Now it’s said that if you go inside the tunnel you may feel one of the trapped souls reaching up out of the dust or the rock walls grabbing onto your legs!  There’s only one way to find out!

The Haunted Tunnel Halloween event begins by passing the “Ghoul Bus,” followed by a blasting horn mysteriously honking from a ghostly semi-truck from years gone by welcoming visitors inside.  Scenes include a number of clowns jumping out of hidden spaces and blocking, or at least hindering progression across a bouncy wooden rope bridge, a jaunt into the Insane Asylum, where hyperactive crazies bounce off the walls, and a frightening room that witnesses The Ring Girl, Samara, climbing out of a stone well!  Escaping her crawling escapades leads to a spooky cemetery of flying ghosts, a hallway run-in with an irate Jester swinging a baseball bat and smashing it into a wall, and through extremely dark corridors inhabited by a ferocious grizzly bear!

A pair of mazes must be navigated next, the first consisting of a large, black pipe entanglement, then a white-tubed labyrinth that yields across tilted, uneven flooring into Neverland and a spinning vortex!  The adventure climaxes with the emergence of a well-hidden, hockey masked fiend that delivers a wild chainsaw chase-out of the Haunted Tunnel!

ANALYSIS:  What a perfect place for a haunted house!  The back story sets the stage for this action-packed walk-through known as the Haunted Tunnel.  This non-profit, fundraising event operated by the Ironton Lions Club has been going on in some form or another for about 25 years now, with all proceeds benefitting the city!  Best actors include baseball bat clown, Samara, and chainsaw lunatic.  Tilting floors, wooden bridge, vortex, and honking horn all provide good scares!  The attraction is limited only by its short duration, but is fun while it lasts, costs only $10, and takes place inside a real tunnel!  Pay them a visit and enjoy some seasonal Halloween entertainment all for a good cause!