The dead are about to rise at the Columbus Fairgrounds once again.

Or, at least, it may feel that way, with the Community Benefit Committee and Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office’s 2024 Haunted House opening for the first night at 6 p.m. Saturday, and opening again Tuesday-Oct. 31, starting at 6 each night.

Lt. Rhonda Sanders with the Community Benefit Committee said this year’s event will be “bigger and better” than ever, with the house following a haunted swamp theme.

“There was a family about 100 years ago who decided they wanted to do a huge family reunion on a ship,” Sanders said in a low voice, telling the ghost story she and her team have come up with for the house this year. “They crashed, and all of them died, but their spirits lived. And they’ve come all the way up the Mississippi, and they landed here at the Fairground. So come out and meet this family.”

While the night includes scares with the haunted house and hayrides, Sanders said the funds raised with tickets and concessions will go toward a good cause: the Community Benefit Committee’s Christmas party for foster children, along with some of its other programs.

“We have a big party where … the foster families get to come, and they get to shop from all these toys that we got donated or bought with the proceeds from here,” Sanders said. “We also help other families out in the community with the proceeds and what we have left of it.”

Tickets will be $10 for the haunted house and $5 for hayrides, Sanders said. Fish plates will be served for $10, while fish sandwiches will be $8.

Last year, Sanders said, the haunted house raised a little more than $13,000. This year, the CBC is shooting to raise $20,000 through the event.

The annual haunted house started roughly 10 years ago in the old tax building behind Zachary’s, Sanders said. But about seven years ago, the house moved to the Columbus Fairgrounds, as owner Jane Jordan volunteered to provide the space for the growing fundraiser.

“The first year they came out here, they built the walls from the ground up,” Jordan said. “They didn’t have anything but the little decorations they brought with them.”

Now, Jordan said, those walls are stored at the Fairground year-round. Trustees from the Lowndes County Adult Detention Center come to assemble the structure and to put up some of the decor on the outside of the house, she said.

Sheriff Eddie Hawkins said his office joins forces with the Community Benefit Committee for the haunted house to help provide Christmas presents to more than 200 foster children in the county and to help the trustees at the jail learn life skills.

“It helps the trustees learn skills, trades, but it also helps them learn about giving back to the community instead of doing criminal things and getting in trouble,” Hawkins said. “It helps them understand that there’s a better way of life.”

Once the walls and exterior of the house go up, eight different volunteers design and decorate the various rooms in the haunted house.

Jordan, one of the eight volunteers, said her room includes a collection of witchy decorations as the “spell” that brings the “spirits” in the house to life in the story.

Volunteers from New Hope High School, Columbus High, Mississippi University for Women, Mississippi State University and others will help with running the house the day-of, Sanders said. Off-duty Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office deputies have also volunteered their time to provide security for the event, Hawkins said.

“We’ll have security here,” Sanders said. “It’s a safe environment. Now, what I do ask parents is don’t drop your child off. Because it won’t take them that long to go through the house. Come in, eat, and wait for them to go through the house.”

Walking through the haunted house takes about 10 to 15 minutes, Sanders said. Hayrides last about 30 minutes.