Haunted Palouse is back this Halloween in Palouse, Wash. The community fundraising event was revived after a rough few years and a brief hiatus.

The Halloween event is typically hosted every October in downtown Palouse and offers visitors different haunted attractions and scares.

The opening weekend this year was Oct. 18–19 and the event will be back again this weekend. Tickets are $40 per person and admission is only allowed for those 12 and older.

Haunted Palouse has been a classic event in the community for nearly 15 years. The Halloween event is operated on a volunteer basis and all proceeds go to a community cause.

“This year, one of the items that we’re pushing for is for the local pool that’s in Palouse,” said Jaide Wilhelm-Rowe, Haunted Palouse social media manager. [The pool] is free for Palouse residents and it’s in dire need of repairs … that’s where a big chunk of the money that’s raised this year is going to go.”

Wilhelm-Rowe said the rest of the proceeds will go toward funding community organizations that were essential to the revival of Haunted Palouse, such as Garfield-Palouse High School’s Future Farmers of America chapter and Palouse robotics team The Cyborgs.

Haunted Palouse’s theme changes yearly, with this year’s theme being resurrection. Complete with an Orbeez-fueled zombie hunt and two haunted houses set up in the Palouse police station and old Palouse health center, the event turns Palouse’s entire downtown into an interactive Halloween special.

Haunts are set up around local businesses, including the Palouse Caboose Bar and Grill and the Palouse Brewing Company. In addition to the haunts, Haunted Palouse also offers individual vendor booths for food and drinks.

The Palouse community is also welcoming a new Halloween event to town this year. Spooktacular Saturdays are the free event geared toward the area’s children, as Haunted Palouse has historically been 12 and older for admission.

“We wanted to do another activity that focuses on the children and something that anybody of different socioeconomic economic backgrounds can come to,” Wilhelm-Rowe said.

Wilhelm-Rowe said Spooktacular Saturdays are daytime events taking place on Oct. 19 and 25. The Halloween event contains a children’s carnival, street fair and local vendors.

In the revitalization effort, Haunted Palouse management updated the ticketing system this year and introduced ticket sales online, and newly implemented wristbands that grant visitors access to the scares.

Haunted Palouse has had a rough few years in recent times and the revival effort is deeply important to the community, Wilhelm-Rowe said. In 2020 and 2021, the event was canceled due to the pandemic and again last Halloween due to a lack of volunteers.

Thankfully, the event was hosted in 2022 and broke its fundraising record, earning approximately $100,000 towards community funds. Event staff this year hope to match or surpass that number.