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Haunted houses that will test your bravery

The Fuzzy Pig in Whitewater features a haunted house that has become more elaborate each year. Terry Mayer/­staff photo.

LAKE GENEVA -- Most of the year, we try to avoid being scared out of our wits. So why is it that as Halloween approaches, the more frightful the better? In any case, Halloween seems to get bigger every year. From haunted barns and spooky hayrides, there are plenty of places to feed your scary side.

This month, over a space of 15 nights, more than 5,000 people will jump on a hay wagon and expect to be scared senseless as they take a ride through the woods of the Grand Geneva Resort in Lake Geneva. Jesse Raeborn will be one of them.

“We go a couple of times now that we live in Chicago,” Raeborn said. “Columbus Day weekend is always the start of the season for me. I just love it.”

Raeborn and family love Halloween. She likes to dress up — a different theme each year — and she likes to traipse through haunted houses, monster-filled cornfields and darkened woods where unknown creatures wait for their prey. Raeborn likes to joke that it took awhile to get married because she needed a husband that preferred a fright night to a date night.

Jamie Krueger, of Dan Patch Stables at the Grand Geneva, will help Raeborn fulfill her desire to be frightened. Krueger and her husband operate the haunted hayride. It’s the ninth season for the event, and each year it gets a bit bigger ... CONTINUED