A one-stop scary shop: Inver Grove Heights haunted house
Maraya King of the Twin Cities Pioneer Press visited Nowhere Entertainment in Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota and shared her experience with our haunted house, escape room, mini golf, arcade, and more in this recent article!
A one-stop scary shop: Inver Grove Heights haunted house adds creepy escape rooms, mini-golf for year-round scares
The owners have hosted seasonal haunts like “Cupid’s Revenge” and “Yule Scream,” centered around dark but true Christmas folklore.
Nicole Ross and her family used to decorate their home and yard so extensively for Halloween that limousines would line up to drive past it, she said. As their four children got bigger, so did the home haunting display.
Now, Ross and her husband, Galen McKay, are part owners of Nowhere Haunted House in Inver Grove Heights along with Halloween enthusiasts Ian Knutson and Mike Reimer. Together, the four owners build sets, design costumes and — new this year — operate an eerie mini-golf course, arcade and unsettling escape rooms.
The 13,000-square-foot indoor haunted house sits in an open warehouse-like space that used to be a Pawn America. The haunted house, which officially opened last fall, runs through Nov. 4 this year. To keep business coming in over the last year, Ross said they hosted seasonal haunts like “Cupid’s Revenge” and “Yule Scream,” which was centered around dark, but true, Christmas folklore.
Their first season wasn’t as busy as they hoped, so this year to keep folks coming and cater to the horror-averse, Nowhere is now home to a custom-built 13-hole mini-golf course.
Putt putt or die trying
Guests play mini-golf at Nowhere Haunted House on South Robert Trail in Inver Grove Heights on Thursday, Sept. 21, 2023. The year-round haunted house attraction offers mini-golf, an arcade room, escape rooms, a snack bar and a haunted house with different levels of scariness; from kid friendly to 18 and older. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)
“I am not a horror person or a person that goes to haunted houses,” Ross said, which is why she and the other owners made sure to toe the line between creepy and downright terrifying at their business.
The mini-golf course costs $10 and, while exceptionally crafted, tops out at creepy, which Ross said was the goal.
The four owners worked together on themes, Ross said, which range from killer wasps to an abandoned New York City alleyway to a cemetery complete with an authentic coffin and a wrought-iron fence that once surrounded an actual cemetery.
Co-owner Knutson designed each of the 13 mini-golf holes. Every element of the course was meticulously hand-painted by Ross over the course of three months, she said. Ross, who was an avid painter before becoming a business owner, said learning how to paint props for Nowhere has been a welcomed challenge.
“It’s harder than you think to make things look gross,” Ross said, adding that she has a newfound appreciation for movies with stellar production design.