Huffman Farms Haunted Forest and Corn Maze is a new seasonal attraction for the Ellensburg community, which opens on Oct. 9.

Huffman Farms is home to activities that include a “U-Pick” pumpkin patch, a petting zoo and a corn maze. The farm is open every weekend in October for hayrides and pony races.

“[October] is like one big, thirty-day event,” Hilary Huffman, owner of Huffman Farms, said.

Hilary Huffman is a resort manager turned farmer. Her husband and Huffman Farms co-owner, Glenn Huffman, is a career firefighter. Since they opened to the public in 2012, they have acquired over 60 animals.

“He’s the firefighter and I’m the farmer,” Hilary Huffman said. “[Glenn Huffman] is a city boy who would live on a lot the size of a postage stamp in town, and they would have nothing more than a goldfish if it were up to him.”

The Huffmans’ two children, twelve-year-old son, Bennett, and ten-year-old daughter, Mally, are constantly providing ideas for the farm’s attractions.

The Haunted Forest and Corn Maze will add some horror to Ellensburg’s Halloween scene to bolster the eerie quality of the forest and maze.

Hilary and Glenn Huffman have enlisted family, friends and about ten Central students to haunt the forest and maze.

According to Hilary Huffman, the reward of running the farm is the excitement of the children who visit the farm.

Over the last year Hilary and Glenn Huffman have been spending more time than before out on the farm with family and friends, which is when they came up with the idea for the haunted forest.

“There’s something about being out there at night,” Hilary Huffman said. “We were actually all sitting around the campfire telling ghost stories, because nobody really does that anymore, and I just pulled this one out of my ear.”

The story Hilary Huffman concocted that night, which centers around two brothers of the McMillan clan, has now become the back story of the Haunted Forest and Corn Maze.

The brothers slaughtered their entire family due to abuse from their parents.

The haunting aspect comes from the brothers’ rumored attempts to reassemble a family by “collecting” random people who bear a resemblance to the original members of the McMillan clan.

Events for kids have been hosted in the past. The farm has also hosted groups and clubs from Central, one of them being the Catholic Campus Ministry.

“You can just walk around and have fun,” Bo Mendez, former leader of the ministry and Central alumnus, said.

Current leadership of the ministry, Emma Mahr, also seems excited about the farm’s October events.

“I think it appeals to college students because going to the pumpkin patch is something that they did as kids with their families, so it’s a great activity to do with friends,” Mahr said. “It’s a little bit of home comfort while away at college.”