Hallways of Horror: Hotel Oakland

"Haunted Hotel Oakland" opened Thursday and will continue to frighten those who dare enter it until Halloween night.

Chelby Gooch, the president of the Havre Jaycees chapter, said they began working on the haunted hotel around three weeks ago.

"We came up to do some changes," she said. "We try to change it up a little every year."

She said this year, they changes four of the rooms to keep repeat visitors guessing as to what lies around the next corner.

"Yes, it's going to be super scary this year," Gooch said.

T.J. Daulton, the state president-elect of the Jaycees, said there are 21 rooms in the haunted hotel.

"It's a good project," Daulton said. "And it's haunted, man. It's not just us up here, let's put it that way."

Gooch said they are adding a few new characters to the haunted hotel this year, but people can expect the scarier characters to still be in place.

Daulton said there are usually anywhere between 25 to 40 people working the haunted hotel, scaring people. It all depends on how many people sign up to volunteer that day.

Katelyn Gooch, a fourth-grader who will be scaring the already-scared patrons of the hotel, said her character is a secret, but it will be very scary. She said she has a lot of fun scaring people and watching their reactions.

"It's pretty funny," she said. This will be her third year frightening people in the hotel.

The Havre Jaycees have been putting together a haunted house for at least 15 years, Gooch said. They used to hold it at the Hill County Fairgrounds and for a while, they built it at Floren's Printing. They have had the haunted hotel, in the old Hotel Oakland for the last six years.

This year, like the last three years, students in the Havre High School Band are helping create the rooms and get things ready for visitors. The Jaycees donate to the band for their assistance with the haunted hotel.

"Without their help, it would be hard to fill a lot of roles," Daulton said. "We really appreciate their help."

In addition to the band students, junior Jaycees, Boy Scouts of America and community members all volunteered to help the Jaycees bring the haunted hotel back up to speed since it was closed last year.

"It takes a lot of preparation," Gooch said.

Gooch said if she had to give advice to people coming into the haunted hotel, it would be "do not wear flip-flops. Flip-flops are very unsafe."

She said on the weekends, things get a little crazy. On Halloween - even crazier. Last year, they closed up around 12:30 a.m.

Daulton said with Halloween landing on a Friday this year, it's going to be "kind of nuts."

Gooch said over the weekends, they have people coming in from the bars to go through the haunted hotel.

"It was fun, but the girls get a little crazy," Gooch said, laughing. "You scare them and they start swinging."

She said the volunteer frighteners in the rooms and roaming the hallways scaring customers have to be careful around those people they are trying to terrify. Last year, a woman punched Gooch's husband in the nose after he did too good of a job scaring her.

"Something the public needs to know is they can't hit or help," Gooch said half-jokingly.

A little boy who was part of the haunted hotel was also hit in the nose by younger boy and he had to go to the hospital because it was broken.

Gooch said "roamers," who are people dressed up as characters, go through the hotel scaring people, but they also make sure that no one is doing anything they shouldn't be doing and to help people through the hotel.

She said the creepiest thing that has ever happened at the hotel is when people try to take photos in certain rooms. In one room in particular, people have found that oftentimes the faces of people will be blurred.

She said one Jaycee took a selfie with someone in one of the rooms, but when she tried to show others, she discovered that she was not in the photo.

"Really creepy stuff," Gooch said. "It's an old building. I'm sure there are spirits somewhere in here."

Admission to the haunted hotel is $5 or $4 with a canned food item. The cans will be donated to the Havre Food Bank and the majority of the proceeds raised by admissions will be given to the Koats for Kids project through the Salvation Army, which supplies coats to children in need.

"Last year, we got about $2,500 worth of new coats for kids in the area," Gooch said.

They also offer a "no scare" run of the haunted hotel for younger children. Saturday and Sunday from 3 to 5 p.m., the Jaycees will open up for children to go through the hotel, which will not have anybody jumping out to scare them. They can use flashlights and admission is a canned food item.

Daulton said they usually get about 2,000 people going through the haunted hotel every year.

"A lot of those people are repeat visitors," Daulton said. "They get scared every time."

When asked how long it takes for people to get through the haunted hotel, Dalton said, "it depends on how scared you are."

"In depends on the group," Daulton said. "Sometimes, you'll get a group that's just petrified and they'll just run. Other groups will be so scared, it takes them forever to go through. You get the one person that's not scared and you'll get three or four of them that are bunched up behind that person, just freaked out."

He said on average, it will probably take a group around 15 minutes to get through the hotel.

He said the hotel is "extremely scary" this year.

"It'll be better than last year's," he said. "We've made a couple of changes which nobody will know about except for the people who are helping out. Just be ready."

Daulton said the Jaycees would like to send a thank-you to the Havre businesses and organizations which donated time and supplies to run the haunted hotel.

Haunted Hotel Oakland opens at 7 p.m. every night and closes whenever people stop coming to it, Gooch said, adding that during the weekdays, it's around 10 p.m. they close down, but it depends on visitors.