ONSTED, Mich. — Nate Thompson is a Michigan filmmaker who is setting his sights on the Irish Hills’ Stagecoach Stop, hoping to turn it into a year-round house of horrors.
The old Stagecoach Stop modeled after the Wild West used to be a popular attraction decades ago. Tourists still stay at its Cowboy Creek Lodge, and the location also hosts weddings.
But, one of the Stagecoach owners reached out to Thompson after watching one of his movies.
“We ended up walking past the building over the courtyard and I said, ‘Hey, was anybody using this at all?’ I looked through the windows. I could tell there was like some old pieces of equipment, some old screen prop displays, but it kind of looked like it was five or 10 years. This is just too good to pass up,” Thompson said.
He reached a three-year lease agreement to bring a year-round haunted tourist attraction to the Stagecoach Saloon and Event Venue.
“Sometimes you get that itch in March or April and then you just kind of got to turn on a scary movie and go to bed,” Thompson said. “But, I feel like if you can go here December for a Christmas event, go here in February, July, October it would be more of a year-round destination that people really kind of grow fond of. Hopefully, it becomes one of those family memory things again like it used to be.”
The courtyard or the Old Town Square will be the main section of HorrorTown. To the right of it will be the main building.
He wants to open HorrorTown in August or September with plans to have storefronts, a museum of horror, maybe food trucks and more.
“Walk through the museum, see the screen-use horror props, see these real skulls of animals, maybe human flesh, maybe some history of dolls, different witch exhibits we’re trying to forth and kind of make it come to life. You got the world’s tallest coffin too, which is its own little attraction itself,” Thompson said.
There is still a lot of work to be done before he’s ready to unleash his house of horrors on the public.
“We’re continuing to accept donations and different items for the museum. It would be the Michigan Museum of Horror. Whether it’s a donation or a loan, we’re typically looking for screen use props, medical items like old funeral items, mortuary kits and makeup kits,” he said. “Other than that it’s finding vendors for our collectible store, a little bit of elbow grease, pushing the broom, getting it clean, putting a fresh coat of paint on it and a new sign and then cutting the ribbon the place.”
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