Honoring the legacy of Merlyn Linn (December 1, 1937 – September 17, 2026)
There have been a few more updates in the past few days. I had a glitch with the Google Calendar I use, and some entries got deleted (getting syncing errors on my computer), but I think I have them back.
As always, your help is appreciated — if something is wrong, please let me know. Many haunts do not provide me with any information so I have to do the best I can at collecting everything, and omissions and mistakes happen.
For those who miss seeing a ton of hand carved pumpkin displays such as the ones Sleepy Hollow Sports Park used to do on their “Blazing Jack-o-Lanterns’ hay ride (here is a photo of that one from 2014)…
…an international pumpkin attraction is setting up here in Des Moines. (I do not have photos of it, since it has not opened yet.)
Pumpkins After Dark has locations in “Canada, the United States, and Ireland.” There are two locations in the USA listed. It is always interesting when places like this choose Des Moines:
https://pumpkinsafterdark.com/locations
I am generally hesitant to post about things like this since we have had a few scams over the years where fancy websites announced attractions with locations “around the country” and pre-sold tickets … only to dig a little deeper and find they did not exist.
But Water Works Park does have them listed:
https://www.waterworkspark.org/events
I have written to their PR folks and received a response that summarized the experience:
“Pumpkins After Dark is an award-winning, family-friendly Halloween experience making its Des Moines debut this year at Water Works Park, running October 9–31.
The experience features thousands of hand-carved pumpkins, large-scale illuminated displays, live pumpkin carving demonstrations, roaming Halloween characters, music, photo opportunities, and plenty of Halloween atmosphere throughout the walk-through experience.”
Slade Creative
They start this Friday (October 9). Prices are listed from $12-$30 depending on the night (plus “processing fee”, “service fee” and “sales tax”). More information can be found at the Des Moines page on their website.
https://pumpkinsafterdark.com/des-moines
A “family pack” of four tickets on Friday comes to $83.52, which is just over $20 per ticket.
Once they open, and folks have checked it out, we should know more about the experience.
Linn’s Haunted House opened last Friday night, as originally planned before the unfortunate passing of its founder, Merlyn Linn. The family vowed to operate the haunted house this year as Merlyn would have wanted.
This year, they are doing a new series of T-shirts. Here are what the old ones looked like, back in 2013:
The new shirts can be ordered at the following link — though in 2026, they cost a bit more, as expected:
But hurry! According to their website, the cutoff to place an order is October 6th.
And speaking of Linn’s shirts, I wore my 2013 edition out to breakfast at Drake Diner today.
Through this experience, we really started to understand how many people know Merlyn Linn. The worker who sat us at the table noticed the shirt, and talked about Merlyn a bit — saying he would often come in and order TO GO.
Another server saw the shirt, and asked if we’d heard the news about Merlyn’s passing.
I expect to hear from many more folks this season as I wear this shirt while out and about.
Anyway, order a new shirt. Go to Linn’s Haunted House. Have a great October.
One weekend down, three more to go…
Tonight is the first night of Halloween month (that’s October for normal people, as opposed to August for Walt Disney World fans) to visit a haunted house here in Des Moines. (Both Slaughterhouse and Adventureland decided September was a better time to start, so…)
Check out the calendar to see what’s happening tonight.
Check out the haunt index to learn more about them.
And visit the map to see where they are.
Some are even offering discounts tonight, so check the Facebook pages and see if you can save some money.
And, if you drop by Linn’s Haunted House, tell them the DMHH guy sends his love. <3
Welcome back, again, Bouton Haunted House.
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61565172877405
…and Oasis Car Wash is back with their Tunnel of Terror but this time it will be at their Altoona location:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61581477073579
The Haunt (bar) is opening on a Tuesday night, October 13, from 7pm to 11pm in honor of the late Merlyn Linn. Adults who knew Merlyn directly, or through visiting his haunted house, are encouraged to join us as we raise a glass in honor of this wonderful human being.
Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/share/1UWYbwM8Wn/
The Haunt’s Website: https://slaughterhousedm.com/haunt
I have started to add haunted house operating dates and times to the DMHH calendar. You can view this on the website, or add it to your phone to get a list of the haunts. NOTE: Unless someone can teach me how, I don’t think it auto updates once you add it to your device. As I make changes/corrections, you may have to delete and re-add.
I have started with what is listed on the official websites. If the page shows dates, but not hours, I just put it in as a daily event. Some information is missing — if it’s not easy to find (like the main page of a website should have where/when/how much) I may not have that on my calendar yet.
Here is the link:
If your car wants in on the haunted house action, check out Tommy’s Express in West Des Moines this year. They will be having their “haunted” car wash again:
They have posted this teaser video to YouTube… Is your car brave enough?
The man behind Linn’s Supermarket Haunted House, Merlyn Linn, has passed away at age 88. Currently, the family plans to continue his wish to operate Linn’s Haunted House this season. For details on Merlyn’s passing, as well as the haunted house plans for this year, visit their website or Facebook page.
https://www.linnshauntedhouse.com
I chatted with Merlyn so many times over the years and was always amazed he was still going full speed ahead each season. He’d be crawling through the tunnels with a vacuum, or popping up and down the basement stairs with a flashlight, non stop. Just watching him made me exhausted.
I will miss him very much. I still have not come to terms with this news.
The Map link at the top of these pages goes to a Google Maps where I have entered the location of all the haunted houses. If the entry starts with “2026”, it is supposed to be operating this year. Some other haunts are listed as “2025” and I have not confirmed them yet. As soon as I do I will update their map entry.
