Ames Haunted Forest is preparing for another year of operation at South Fourth and Riverside near the Iowa State University campus.  The attraction open each year a few weeks before Halloween and operates weekends, with additional hours on Halloween week.  Employing 35 actors and staff, Ames Haunted Forest offers a variety of Halloween oriented entertainment.

AHS History

Polk City's Greatest Magician Orville Ballard and his sons Lynn and Lee Ballard of Iowa have joined forces with Texas hauntmeister Curtis Claxton to bring a state-of-the-art Halloween haunted forest to the city of Ames.

The idea for the Haunted Forest came to Mr. Ballard after 38 years of trying unsuccessfully to overcome local rumors of strange happenings in the woods he owns near Squaw Creek. In 1962 Orville Ballard sold O. A. Ballard Excavating Co. and purchased some property straddling Squaw Creek at Riverside and Fourth in Ames. He built the Riverside Manor Nursing Home on the north section of the property, and he and his wife Bonnie ran the nursing home until selling it in 1973. The south section was also offered for sale but found no takers, rumor around town claimed it was haunted, and since then the forest has been left undisturbed. After years of trying to disprove the rumor, Mr. Ballard has decided to go along with the majority and has built a Haunted Forest on the property.

The Ballard family has lived and worked in and around Ames for many years. Mr. Claxton is from Dallas, Texas and has been involved with the entertainment industry for over thirty years, for the last nine years he has devoted himself exclusively to the design and operation of Haunted Attractions. Together they frighten and entertain thousands of guests annually at their attraction.

For more information call the Haunted Forest at 515-249-0553 or 515-964-7603.