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Arson Destroys 20 Years Of Art And Studio
We have all heard it before; "You Haunted House people are doing the Devil's work! Stop doing the work of Satan or suffer the wrath of God," from religious fanatics who have never even been in the attraction to discover for themselves what it is like. Usually no more than an inconvenience, most of us just shake our heads in disbelief, or laugh off the insinuation, while others sick the chainsaw guy on the protesters.
Unfortunately Mark Cline of Enchanted Castle Studios in Natural Bridge, North Carolina, will look that these comments differently from now on. A manufacturer of props for the Haunted Attraction Industry, Mark is also a contributing author for this publication. (See A Super Alternative Way to Create A Haunt, this issue.) In 1993, Mark turned his workshop and studio into a tourist attraction and started offering tours of the place "Where we make props and figures for the Amusement and Entertainment Industry." This "Wild and wacky" tour was filled with golf-cart-driving hippos, dinosaurs eating houses, secret passages and revolving book case doors. The studio property was strewn with strange and bizarre life-sized sculptures from the mind of Mark Cline. Fanciful creatures such as the "Butterflynoserous" and the winged "Holy Cow," were a tribute to Mark's creativity and imagination. Cline is unsure how many people visit the attraction each year because he gives away as many tickets as he sells, "I just want to make the world a happy place," he said, "I'm not an artist, I'm an entertainer."
On Monday April 8th at about 2 a.m. this "happy place," turned into a raging inferno, as someone set fire to the studio building of the compound. The fire started at a large fiberglass entrance façade that was in the form of a Devil's head. Every available fire company responded to the alarm, but the building, filled with flammable chemicals used in making fiberglass, was a lost cause. The blaze devoured both the studio and workshop at the Enchanted Castle, leaving only the cinderblock walls still standing. "Some critics go to far!" jokes Mark, still in high spirits after the fire, "The funny thing is that the Friday before the fire was the best business day of my life," explaining that he had gotten two very large projects that day.
Mark said he had been receiving religious pamphlets anonymously since last October when he was driving around town with a fiberglass monster in the back of his pick-up truck, to advertise the Castle's Halloween event. During the fire Mark found a note in his mailbox, exclaiming that he had a "one-way ticket to hell." Quite disturbing the note started with the words "Fire and Brimstone," and continued with "We have prayed for you." This note included recent news clippings about the flying saucers Mark had set up near the highway to promote the studio tour. The photograph had been singed around the edges and Mark's left arm burned off, symbolizing his work.
Destroying something in the name of God, "That's not the God I believe in," remarks the 40-year-old Cline, who says that he does believe in a higher power, but stopped short of calling himself a religious man. Since the beginning of time, Religion has caused more pain and suffering than all of the "devil worshipers" put together, "Just look at the middle east with the Israelis and Palestinians exchanging rocks and gunfire. This cannot be what Jesus had in mind." Mark has been saying the same daily prayer for as long as he can remember, "God, help me to help people and to keep the wolves off my back doing it."
While taking the situation in great stride, the biggest regret that Mark has is the loss of photographs and newspaper clippings that he had collected from the age of 7. "There were movies that I had made," remembers Mark, "All lost, Nothing to show my kids."
Call For Enchanted Castle Photos!
The fire destroyed Mark's office and computer, which leaves him with no record of the art that he has created over the last 33 years. He is requesting that anyone who has photographs, drawings, brochures, news clippings or anything else relating to his work to please send a copy to him at: Mark 4942 South Lee Highway, Natural Bridge, Virginia 24578
"All I want to do is bring smiles to faces," he said, "Let everyone know that I am doing fine, and that positive things will come out of this!" explains Mark already in the process of expanding his business horizons with an attraction opening in Virginia Beach this summer called the Mystery Swing. "The Studio was never designed as attraction," says Mark who has plans to rebuild the Enchanted Castle Amusement Park, bigger and better, and to reach a wider audience. Construction to in June, once slab is cleared off. While insurance will cover the value of the buildings that burned, it will not cover the replacement costs, or any of the contents. Molds, equipment, and "Twenty years of my work up in smoke in two hours," remarks Cline, struggling to put a price on the loss, which included several commissioned jobs already under construction.
Preferring to look at the tragedy as a "Doorway into something even more fantastic," Mark wanted to thank everyone for his or her prayers and support, "Everyone has been so sweet." Still standing on the property is a warehouse, which Mark will temporarily convert into a shop, and by borrowing some of his original sculptures to make molds from, Mark feels that he will back in business in no time.
Local Police said on the Friday after the fire that they had found the party responsible for the notes, and told Mark that he and his family would not be bothered in the future, but at the time of this writing, the police would not disclose whether the person or persons responsible for the fire were in custody.
We have all had nightmares of something like this happening to us. In the future it would be wise to take the threats spouted by religious fanatics a bit more seriously than we have in the past. Strangely the "Butterflynoserous" and the winged "Holy Cow," miraculously escaped the blaze at the Enchanted Castle unscathed, the molds to make these imaginary creatures, however, were lost in the fire.
The gang at the Howl2000 Mailing List has set up a "Howl - Haunters Help Fund" for Mark and his family through PayPal. All donations will go to the fund account and may or may not be tax deductible. Anyone wanting to submit a donation can send the money to Haunt@att.net. Please be sure to put "Enchanted Castle" in the subject line.
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