Zyweic’s Landscaping and Garden Center, a business that has provided outdoor essentials to Hastings and Cottage Grove residents since 1982, will host its Halloween Haunting Experience for the 35th consecutive year this October.

The Haunting Experience offers both a haunted hayride and a haunted house for guests to test their fears and find out what freaks them out the most. The haunted hayride currently stands as the longest running in the state of Minnesota. A tractor pulls guests on a trailer through Zyweic’s haunted forest and the terrors of Wilhelm Steelworks. Bill Zyweic, owner of Zyweic’s Landscaping and Garden Center, spoke about the thrills he and his team of 60 people get from doing this year after year.

“We keep it fun. I mean, we love the show. We love this kind of stuff, it’s not just for kids but for all ages. We come in here, and it’s a whole different style thing, which is perfect, because you got a high intensity. Here, it’s pretty intense and if we do our job like that. That’s awesome for all of us,” said Zyweic.

The 61 Haunting Experience takes place each October weekend and ends on Halloween. Before the Haunting Experience opens up at 7 p.m. each weekend night, a family-friendly Fall Fun Fest takes place at Zyweic’s from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 16-31. The Fall Fun Fest’s main attractions are goats for kids to pet and feed along with free hayrides, a coloring station, a lights on tour of the haunted house, and pumpkin painting station.

The preparation for the 61 Haunting Experience is a year-round job for Zyweic and his crew.

“We work on this yearround,” Zyweic said. “Not fully, but typically by the end of this season, we’ll have everything figured out, kind of what we’re going to do for next year. We always have a little talk on everything with preparation and I got an awesome crew. About six of us work on it yearround. I’ve had these guys for quite a few years. We design and build everything ourselves for the haunted house and barely have to make changes each year.”

Everyone has options when it comes to what they want to go through at the Haunting Experience, depending on what their terror limits are. All guests can hop on for the hayride and enter the haunted house, or go on one of the two options twice.

The hayride is filled with deep tunnels, overgrown fields, twisted trees, and other shocking terrors to give riders a spine-chilling shock. Riders encounter the remains of a two-century old family, their bodies still rotting along the course drained in the ground with the insanity of time.

The haunted house is another experience in itself. The hallways are small to navigate and rooms are filled with actors that will push every guest’s limit in the horror they can handle. The haunted house is home to a variety of horror-themed rooms from a morgue, church, murder kitchen, cabin with a trap door, and even a haunted classroom. On top of that, 30 actors dressed in their best horror costumes lurk around every corner to frighten guests through the maze, trying to invoke fear that they may not escape to tell others about their experience.

Even with the high intensity horror of the 61 Haunting Experience, Zyweic has always had a policy of respecting every guest’s limits.

“We don’t force anybody into either attraction. We have a no contact policy, no touch policy. You’ll have incidental contact if they run into the actors right. Now here we have about 60 hunters throughout the whole system, usually you know half and half and yeah, this is a no touch anymore in either attraction which helps some people get into them,” Zyweic said.

After surviving the main attractions, guests can enter a more relaxing, less frightening atmosphere for refreshments and live music. This year, Zyweic’s will bring in cheese curds and mini donuts for the first time, along with a beer tent from Spiral Brewing. Each weekend, a new musician performs. Record High takes the stage Friday, Oct. 1 and Helium for LiftOff on Oct. 2.

2020 was one of the more challenging years for the 61 Haunting Experience dealing with COVID-19. While Zyweic was nervous at first on how the pandemic would impact the flow of guests, he was relieved when the season turned out to be close to normal.

“Last year we ran the Experience and we had zero instances of COVID … so with the stuff going on now, we’re going to keep our COVID-19 protocols in accordance with what Gov. Walz has in place. We don’t have to do a mask mandate; they are currently optional for this year. Last year, I wasn’t going to police wearing masks. I mean, it’s not our job, but we as a staff had to have it on when they came. This year, that won’t be the case,” said Zywiec.

From 3-8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 2, Zyweic’s will host a barbeque benefit with all proceeds going to the Fisher House. The main course will be smoked ribs.

Also this October, for every pumpkin that people purchase at Zyweic’s, $1 will go to the Red Cross to help victims of this current hurricane season throughout the southern and eastern United States.

The 61 Haunting Experience opens Friday, Oct. 1. Tickets at the door are $28 and are $27 online per person. Groups of 20 get $3 off each ticket and any groups of 20 or larger must call or go to Zyweic’s in person to purchase group rate tickets.

The morgue room in the haunted house brings a bone chilling fright for any who dare to pass through it.Photo by Theodore Tollefson

Mannequins add to the haunting horror under the cover of darkness at Zyweic’s Haunted Experience. Photo by Theodore Tollefson