Trolley ride retells Iola’s spooky past
The 2010 Halloween season is in full swing, with stories of suspense, tidbits of history, a few laughs and of course, screams. Plenty of screams.
Iola volunteer extraordinaire Donna Houser is again serving as hostess and narrator for the Molly Trolley Haunted Halloween tours, which continue tonight, Thursday and Friday.
Houser spins tales of Iola’s past — from a real Dr. Frankenstein’s efforts to cure asthma to a true-life Cinderella who called Iola home.
Unlike their fictional namesakes, both were verified as Iola residents, Houser said.
Other stories are a bit more sinister, like the infamous cavalry soldier John Bell, whose crime and subsequent punishment put Iola in the state history books, and the man who was found, mortally bloodied, in his locked office in Iola’s downtown business district.
Another story touches on the supernatural, featuring a shadowy creature with fiery eyes that showed up at the old Lanyon Zinc smelter on the west edge of town.
LIKE A well-oiled machine, Houser puts together the stories while driver Terry Johnson maneuvers the 1988 Molly Trolley about town.
Now in her fourth year on the haunted trolley tours, Houser has honed the program so that each tale reaches its dramatic climax as the trolley reaches the spots where a spooky character or two may lurk.
Developing the program took about a year’s worth of research, Houser said, usually by poring over old microfilmed copies of the Iola Register dating to the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The research was not unlike a college student working on a masters thesis, Houser said.
“We wanted the stories to be ‘more real,’” added Barbara Chalker Anderson, former executive director of the Iola Area Chamber of Commerce, who helped Houser with the research.
“People asked why we didn’t change the stories any this year, and that’s because I had 13 other tours I was working on,” Houser said, noting the trolley now has tours celebrating the histories of nearby communities as well.
In addition to the stories of Iola’s past, Houser also sprinkles in a few fictional yarns that she quickly identifies as nothing more than stories to keep folks entertained. (The one about “The Hairy Toe” is a particular delight.)
The tour also passes by some of the more elaborately decorated houses in Iola before Houser caps the hour-long trip with a few groan-inducing riddles.
“How do bats learn to fly? They take batting practice.”
TICKETS FOR the tours are selling quickly, said Jana Taylor, current chamber executive director. Only a handful remain for Friday.
Tickets can be purchased for $5 each by calling the chamber at 365-5252.
