Troop always prepared to scare

Scouts who run Reindeer Manor say house’s past is pretty spooky
By EMILY RAMSHAW / The Dallas Morning News

Most haunted houses pop up for quick thrills during the Halloween season. But the Duncanville Boy Scout troop that runs Red Oak’s Reindeer Manor has something a little spookier – theirs is haunted 365 days a year.

The Scouts, celebrating the 90th anniversary of Troop 1 and the manor’s 30th season as an attraction, believe spirits inhabit the 17-acre property. Though the Scouts’ terrifying props and costumes are fake, the deadly history of the house is fact, documented in newspaper articles and accounts from the turn of the century.

“There are things that go on out here that can’t be explained,” said Scoutmaster Jim Scott, peering out from the house’s control room. “People have experienced things out here that make them sure it’s haunted.”

The manor’s history is stormy. In the early 1900s, James Sharp, a prominent pioneer and banker, built a wooden house on the site, leasing it to a family of immigrants. Around 1915, the house burned to the ground, killing the entire family.

When he learned of the fire, Mr. Sharp rebuilt the house making it as fireproof as possible with the concrete, brick and steel walls that stand today. But while Mr. Sharp was waiting for the manor’s completion, he either shot himself or was shot by his mistress in his home in Oak Cliff. The coroner’s report lists cause of death as “loss of two to three ounces of brain matter.”

Mr. Sharp’s eldest son, James, moved to the new manor, where he was a prosperous ranchman and bred horses for racing. Rumor has it Bonnie and Clyde once stopped by Mr. Sharp’s racetrack.

Legend, rather than documentation, dominates the next chapter of manor history.

At the onset of the Great Depression, the young Mr. Sharp was thrust into poverty, and rumors of his growing insanity spread. The final chapter of the Sharp legacy found Mr. Sharp swinging from a noose in the barn and his wife poisoned in the main dining room.

The house stood vacant until 1974, when different organizations turned it into a commercial haunted house. The Boy Scouts took over in 1982 and have run it every season since.

Mr. Scott, who has lived on the property for four years, said the house sees close to 10,000 visitors and makes about $60,000 every season.

The troop has averaged 30 members a year over the last 90 years, and is one of the longest running in the region. And the haunted house is one of the oldest of its kind.

“We’ve had multiple generations involved in this house,” Mr. Scott said. “As much as it has been a financial benefit, it has been pretty amazing the abilities it has taught our kids.”

Skills to scare

The boys build everything in the house – from flamethrowers to collapsing ceilings – and learn carpentry, electronics and engineering skills in the process.

Danny Alexander, who has two sons in the troop and has volunteered more than 300 hours at the house this season, said Reindeer Manor is a lesson in everyday life.

“We have 14-year-olds who can weld, and kids younger than that who know all about plumbing, wiring and cement work,” Mr. Alexander said, walking through the house to turn on the special effects. In the last year, he said, Scouts even dug an underground tunnel under a mock graveyard and are working to repair a broken-down hearse purchased from a used car lot.

But the Scouts’ first love is special effects. From swinging axes to moving chairs and drawers that open by themselves, the house is run by gadgets the troop bought at Army auctions. The house is home to the original equipment from Six Flags’ Runaway Mine ride. And the troop has a special flare for fire – around every corner something bursts into flame.

With the increased pyrotechnics come safety concerns, and the troop has made strides in the last year in improving security and making the house comply with Americans with Disabilities Act standards.

Mr. Alexander’s son Douglas, 14, the manor’s mad scientist, said the house has taught the Scouts more than building skills – it has taught them people skills.

“This means so much to the troop, because it’s the one thing we do to make all our money,” Douglas said. “We don’t have to sell popcorn like other troops, and it’s taught us to be thankful for what we’ve got.”

Variety of volunteers

The volunteers range from former Scouts to teenagers assigned to community service at Duncanville’s teen court. These teens like the fact that they can get community service hours doing something so fun.

Richard Kinney has spent every October since 1987 working the haunted house. Back then, he was an apprehensive 11-year-old Scout. Today, he wears his hair in a bright orange Mohawk and carefully glues grotesque masks on the volunteers.

“We get the ‘troubled teens,’ but it’s nice because our Scout mentality can really extend to them,” Mr. Kinney said. “They would never think of Scouting as being cool, but they get the unnoticed benefits.”

Sarah Shelton, a 15-year-old from Red Oak who is volunteering for the second year, said the best part is getting to scare friends.

“It’s so fun, because everyone from Red Oak and all around comes out for it, and it’s our job to freak them out,” she said.

But visitors aren’t the only ones getting scared. Mr. Kinney said in his years at Reindeer Manor, he has seen some terrifying things. Such as the time a large mirror fell off the wall and shattered. When the Scouts picked up the pieces, they discovered that neither the wire on the mirror nor the hook on the wall was broken.

“Somehow that mirror had been lifted off the hook and fell,” Mr. Kinney said. “The house is absolutely haunted, without a doubt.”

Reindeer Manor opens at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday. For more information and detailed directions, visit www.reindeermanor.com.

Special thanks to EMILY RAMSHAW and the whole staff of The Dallas Morning News

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