10 Years of Fear with Lee Jordan

I talk with Lee Jordan to talk about Fear on the Farm, a West Virginia haunted attraction celebrating its 10th year in business. What started with Lee’s love of Halloween grew into an operation that brings families and visitors to Winfield each fall. Over the past decade, Fear on the Farm has expanded several times and now includes ten separate attractions. Our conversation covered the growth of the business, staffing, marketing, reinvestment, team culture, and the lessons Lee has learned from running a seasonal attraction.

Lee’s interest in Halloween goes back to childhood. He spent years decorating yards and creating experiences for family and the community. That interest led to the idea of doing something on a larger scale. Fear on the Farm was built on a working farm and developed through new sets, animatronics, actors, games, and attractions. The business has expanded about five times as the audience has grown.

One challenge is giving people a reason to return each year. The team changes themes, develops new rooms, updates games, and adds new elements to the midway. A large part of the experience also depends on the people working inside the attraction.

Lee begins preparing his actors months before Halloween. Recruitment starts after Christmas, with outreach through social media, email, colleges, and theater departments. Staff members attend monthly two-hour training sessions through what the team calls Monster School. Those sessions help actors learn how to work inside the attraction and create a consistent experience for guests.

That investment in people connects to how Lee handles the money generated by the business. Revenue is put back into Fear on the Farm through equipment, sets, animatronics, and other improvements. While technology can create scares, Lee believes trained actors remain one of the most important parts of a haunted attraction.

Fear on the Farm is also built to provide more than the short haunted-house experience some guests expect. Lee points to Bloody Mary’s Harvest of Screams, which takes about 35 minutes to complete. His goal is not simply to move visitors through the building. He wants the experience to last long enough and create enough moments that people continue talking about it after they leave.

Staffing has become one of the largest business challenges. Recruiting enough people and keeping them involved requires work throughout the year. Lee responds by focusing on relationships among the team. Staff members gather after operating nights for bonfires, movies, meals, and other activities. They also visit haunted attractions together, including trips inside and outside West Virginia. Those outings give the team time together while exposing them to ideas they can bring back to their own operation.

Not every idea has worked. During the first few years, Fear on the Farm used a 15-foot spiral slide between floors. Guests sometimes failed to follow instructions, creating backups and safety problems that slowed the attraction. The slide was removed and relocated to the Manslaughter Mountain trail, which has not reopened because of staffing limits. It serves as an example of how an idea can work in theory but create problems during operation.

Lee also shared lessons that apply outside the haunted attraction business. He believes entrepreneurs need to learn how to market without being afraid of putting their message in front of people. Fear on the Farm uses social media along with billboards, radio, newspapers, business cards, flyers, parades, and community events. His approach is to keep reaching people through different channels instead of depending on one form of promotion.

Running the attraction has also required Lee to develop skills outside his original background. One example is carpentry. Building, repairing, and changing attractions has pushed him to improve his construction skills while keeping safety in mind.

After ten years, Fear on the Farm shows how a seasonal idea can become an ongoing business through reinvestment, marketing, training, and attention to the people doing the work. Lee’s experience also shows that growth requires change. Attractions have to be updated, ideas sometimes have to be removed, and staffing remains a constant concern. At the center of the business is a focus on creating an experience people remember, building a team that wants to return, and continuing to put the business in front of the public year after year.