which they believe will take them until November, the two men will then tackle the other house. “I can’t wait,” said Kisielius. “It’s one creepy place, that’s for sure.” But just how creepy is it? One last tour into McMaze’s haunted house Sandy opens the front door of the old Campbell farmhouse and instantly reaches for his cell phone, which acts as a flashlight. It’s a good idea, for the house is pitch black, every window having been boarded shut. “We used to have a lot of visitors here,” he said. “We’d hide and scare them. But after a while, it became a lot of work, so we decided to concentrate on other things.” The first thing that greeted visitors was an old piano with several different Halloween decorations. In order to make the whole experiencemore horrifying, theMcDonalds created several different hallways, all of them small and claustrophobic. The said hallways create a sort of labyrinth within the two storey house. Although the building does possess a second storey, it’s unused, as a good portion of it caved in years ago. All throughout the hallways are decora- tions and holes in themany walls. Darkness seeps into each inch of the building, only footsteps on the old timber can be heard.The tour ends with a visit in the dirt basement. “This is where it used to start,” explained Sandy. From the basement, the house’s sturdy foundation is visible, the trademark of a bygone era. Both buildings have been owned by the McDonald family for close to 15 years now. “My father was always interested in it,” said Stephen McDonald, current patriarch of the family farm. “But the Campbell’s never wanted to sell. Well in the 1960s, it got pretty cold in there and the family decided to spend the winter somewhere else. When they came back, one of them got very sick and they simply never returned.” According to the man, even saucers and cups were left in the house. “It was weird,” he admitted. “They literally got up and left, leav- ing behind nearly everything they owned.” Shortly after, the family sold the house to a local dairy farmer, who left it vacant for some time, before the McDonalds were given the chance to purchase it. Taking a well deserved break As Stephen readies the horses in order to put them in the barn, following yet another day at McMaze, children run around the many venues at the family farm, laughing. Parents thank the McDonald family before retiring to the parking lot, which is actually a green field. “I think it was time for us to take a break,” explained Valerie McDonald, matriarch of the family. “We spend at least 100 hours a week here.” Although this might seem like simply
several overtime hours on a farm, most of theMcDonald familymembers also have full time jobs. Sandy, for example, is a chemistry teacher at Char-Lan high school. “It can get tough sometimes,” he said, a
smile on his lips. So what will happen of the family farm after the gates of McMaze close for one last time? “My husband wants to go for cash crops,”
said Valerie. “We’re also going to sell the animals. It’s going to be pretty hard on all of us, but I think it’s time.” Potential visitors have until October 31 to visit McMaze, after which, it will close.
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The Journal Cornwall
3
Wednesday, October 19, 2016
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