Before you stands the dark ride “The Haunted House”. A “dark ride” is an indoor amusement that uses animation, sounds and other special effects to frighten (or entertain). Visitors ride mechanized carts that often change direction or tilt to heighten the excitement. One look at the Haunted House and you will see that this is a piece of Ocean City history.
The Haunted House opened in 1964. It is one of the few remaining dark rides designed and built by Bill Tracy. Tracy was considered one of the best dark ride builders, and has been credited with creating over 40 dark rides in his lifetime.
Bill Tracy began his career in 1952 designing and building amusement displays including floats, props and costumes for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. In 1953, he began creating floats and window displays for Macy’s department stores. Tracy’s works and notoriety continued to expand and by 1960 he was designing and building entire theme parks. It was in the early 1960’s when Tracy began exploring his dark side by transitioning away from building happy, conservative, broadly appealing floats, props, costumes and other amusements to building horrific, disturbing and controversial dark rides.
Bill Tracy in an Ad for his company, Outdoor Dimensional Display - early 60s
In 1961, Granville Trimper was inspired by the dark rides at Glen Echo Park in Maryland. Not long thereafter he met Bill Tracy at an amusement convention where they discussed building a dark ride on the boardwalk in Ocean City, MD. Construction began in 1963 and the ride opened for the 1964 season. The original ride was only one floor but contained many of the “stunts” you see today including the Attic Rat, Tilted Corridor, Old Mill and the Torture Chamber.
Granville Trimper in front of the original one-story version of The Haunted House – 1970s
In 1965, another Bill Tracy creation Ghost Ship, opened in Ocean City in the now defunct Ocean Playland amusement park. This nautical themed dark ride only lasted 15 years until the amusement park was shuttered in 1981. Granville Trimper purchased Ghost Ship, dismantled it and moved its contents to his storage facilities. Much of the contents were used in the 1988 two-story expansion of The Haunted House.
Photo of Granville Trimper’s trailer preparing to load the stunts - 1981
In November of 1988, much of the original Haunted House was demolished and the original stunts were removed and placed into storage to be reused. Granville Trimper designed and built the 2-story expansion using the original stunts as well as track and most of the scavenged stunts from Ghost Ship.
Demolition prior to building the two-story ride - 1988
In 2006, another Bill Tracy dark ride, Phantasmagoria, in Bell’s amusement park in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was shuttered for good. In 2011, some of the stunts from the ride went up for auction. Trimper’s amusement park purchased about half a dozen stunts from the ride and brought them to Ocean City. Some of those stunts were installed in the Haunted House in the spring of 2012.
Coffin from Phantasmagoria before installation in The Haunted House - 2012
Over the decades, Trimper’s has continued to refresh, rebuild and repaint many of the existing stunts in the Haunted House. Newer stunts have also been brought in to replace aging stunts, all the while maintaining the authenticity of the original vision of Bill Tracy and Granville Trimper.
If you go around the corner of the building, you can find a walkthrough funhouse in Trimper’s amusement park, Pirates Cove, which was also built by Granville Trimper and Tracy in 1971.
Trimper’s amusement park continues to be a steward for Tracy’s creations, even those that didn’t originate in the park.
Tilted Corridor - 2022
References
billtracyproject.com; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trimper%27s_Haunted_House; trimpershauntedhouse.com; ochh.net; laffinthedark.com; oceancity.com/ocean-city-oddities-bill-tracy-ocs-original-dark-ride-bat-boy/
TO CLAIM YOUR FIND
You must fulfill the following requirements to log this cache. Failure to satisfy the requirements may result in your log being deleted without notice.
Requirement A: Include with your posted log a photo of yourself or a personal item with the Haunted House in the background. (Possible personal items, for instance, could be a trackable or a piece of paper with your geocaching name.)
Requirement B: Please message the cache owner with the answers to the following questions. Do NOT post the answers in your log or your log will be deleted.
1) What animal is perched on the upper right roof line of the Haunted House?
2) Using the items on the 2nd floor fence of the Haunted House, what year was Scared E. Cat born?
NOTE: question 3. Apparently they have removed the signs in the parking lot. At this point I do not know if this is permanent or temporary or if the signs will be changed. I'm leaving the below question as a placeholder, in the event this is temporary. Feel free to answer the question if the signs are replaced, or ignore question 3 for now. We will be down in March to assess the situation and determine what adjustments to the questions are needed, if any.
3) Standing in front of the Haunted House but facing the parking lot, each row of the parking lot is labeled with a character. What letter or number of a row do you see directly in front of you. (Either of two possible answers will be accepted)
*** The Haunted House is a dynamic historical structure. From time to time, the items referenced in the questions above may be replaced or removed for maintenance. If you feel this is the case, please note this in your message to the CO. We do ask that everyone post a picture as specified with their log.
Virtual Rewards 4.0 - 2024-2025
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between January 17, 2024 and January 17, 2025. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 4.0 on the Geocaching Blog.