Thread: Sleepy Hollow Cemetary Ideas - wanted

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Hi, I have a corn maze that we do a haunted trail through every fall. This year the maze will be of a headless horseman so I want to put together the cemetary with the same theme. I'm looking for good tombstone epitaphs, simple prop ideas, ect. Any good Icabod crane tombstones? Thanks!

Civ, who is a member here, has done a blow-you-out-of the-graveyard Sleepy Hollow graveyard: The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow

To give you a taste, here's his Headless Horseman:






Another member, holyhabanero, made a great tut on how to make the scarecrow: My Sleepy Hollow/Pumpkinrot Scarecrow

I'm not sure these ideas fall into the category of "simple" but...

a) Build a covered bridge. It doesn't have to be crazy big, maybe 20' feet long. You could probably get away with bridge opening facades at either end and some type of simple tent arrangement in between. For extra credit, pipe in the sound of a galloping horse, giving the impression the maze walkers are being chased - that would move them right along.

b) Use lighted foam jack-o-lanterns to simulate the flaming jack-o-lanterns the Headless Horseman throws at victims. Several jack-o-lanterns could be hung down the length of the covered bridge, and it would be very cool if you could make them light up (flash) in sequence, so that in the dark it would appear like a single jack-o-lantern flying down the length of the bridge. You could also replace the AC lights in other jack-o-lanterns with battery-powered lights and make them swing like pendulums across the maze path, just above head level (say 6' 6').

I know these ideas are more for the maze than for the cemetery like you requested, but I'm struggling with epitaphs. The best I can come up with is under one of the Sleepy Hollow character's name on the tombstone, put "Lost his last horse race by a nose" except scratch out "nose" and put "head" next to it.

Thanks Terra and MassMax! I was thinking about trying the pumpkinrot scarecrow thing - I've got a pic somewhere with a really twisted wood frame. I could make several and space them out. (Saved more sample pics from the site you listed too!) And MassMax, the whole bridge idea - LOVE it. I think I will work on plans for something on that order! Maybe use pallets and fill in the gaps for them to walk over for the bridge effect.

GREAT ideas - just what I'm looking for!!

I know that this may not help, but one of the biggest aspects of the short story that have made it such a great classic of the english language was it's great details and descriptions that helped to set the mood. Outside the maze, really push the fall season which is a time of two great extremes, immense beauty in the day, and dark, chilling desolation at night. What I would suggest for the maze would be have the exterior and surrounding area set with hay, corn, pumpkins, and other very autum things. As the guests make their way away from the entrance, instantly plunge them into the darker side of fall. try to keep the sounds of other guests as muffled as possible, and keep the ambient light from the outside out as best as possible. Let the corn and the moon do what they do best. you could try some horse galloping, or even some spooky wind, but dont overdo it with the sound.The still air and seclusion really will heighten their sense of anxiety, which is a large part of what freightened Ichabod so much. As far as scares go, you could try to get the actors in colonial garb (maybe try a local reenactment society?), and get a few of them walking around outside of the maze possibly as some of the characters from the story (Ichabod Crane, Katrina Von Tassel, Brahm Bones), setting the colonial atmosphere, interacting with guests and each other, etc.. You could even hire (or find) a good character actor to recount the tale for guests.

Sorry if I went a bit overboard with the suggetions, I just really like the whole story, and I think that this is one of the FEW times that Halloween should be blurred with fall and autum decor, although I would HOPE you wont interpret this as me encouraging you to put up a cute Micheal's craft store, Martha Stuart haunt (oh, I get sick even thinking about it)

i love the idea and the costume i saw that picture of the headless horseman and thought i might build one like it for next year

I built a sleepy hollow entrance this year for some folks who do a sleepy hollow themed display

Whoa, that's cool ihauntu!

Cornstalker - did you get the sleepy hollow cemetery display done for this halloween? Love to see pictures...