An Award Winning Haunted Experience
History of Dead City Haunted House in Salt Lake City (Murray) Utah:
As a teenager the owner of Dead City Haunted House attended several haunted houses, The March of Dimes Haunted Houses, The Institute of Terror Haunted House (now Nightmare on 13th), The Haunted Woods at Wheeler Farm, The Haunted Old Mill Haunted House, Rocky Point Haunted House, Alien Encounters Haunted House, The State Fair Park Haunted Houses, and the Nightmare at the Grand Haunted House at SLC Community College. Attending these events generated further interest in haunted houses, made fun memories, and provided a wealth of experiences to draw from for future event creation. He also learned how to make many special effects in a high school electronics class where he learned how to make plasma balls, Jacobs Ladders, Tesla Coils, strobe lights, zap effects and other electronic devices.
Having and interest in animatronics and robotics he attended the University of Utah and received a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering. While at the U of U he developed an animatronic control circuit card and used it to make coin operated talking skeletons. In 1996 the owners of The Institute of Terror (now Nightmare on 13th) discovered the skeletons and asked to use the system for a new concept they were working on called Terror Theater. Subsequently two talking skeletons were made for the first season of Terror Theater. The animated theater continued to progress and is still an integral part of the Nightmare on 13th Haunted House.
In 1997 after the success of Terror Theater the DCHH owner decided to open his own haunted house called The Haunted Old West at the Wagonmaster restaurant. Ironically in the same building that Dead City Haunted House now resides. The event was around 18,000 square feet, had several automated effects, approximately 40-50 actors, vortex tunnel, two giant puppet characters, and many other fun effects. The entire event had one week to be completely set up before the opening night and had to be taken down in a few days before the start of holiday parties.
