Popular Northfield Halloween Event to Return This October

A longtime favorite Halloween attraction will be returning this October in Northfield's Birch Grove Park.

The Northfield Volunteer Fire Company #1  posted on Facebook to say that the Birch Grove Hayride will return to the park this October.

"We are spooked to announce that the long-time community tradition of Birch Grove Hayrides will be returning this Halloween!!

The plan is to hold a family-friendly weekend event on Oct 10-11 with a rain date for Sunday, Oct. 12.

Northfield has two wagons that were donated for the hayrides, and work is underway to repair the city's two tractors for the event.

The Facebook post asks interested people to spread the word about the return of the Birch Grove Hayride and to help with donations of Halloween decorations.

Longtime Volunteer Remembers the Birch Grove Hayrides

I caught up with Jim Moss from Egg Harbor Township, who volunteered at the original Birch Grove Hayride for at least 17 years of its approximate 25-year run.

Jim told me he and some friends got involved in the hayride because they liked scaring people at Halloween.

"We thought it was fun. Me and my wife, my brother, and another friend were out on the road, hiding behind trees and jumping out, scaring people.

That next year, we came in and the whole area (of the hayride) they called the dump, about halfway down the road... we said, nobody's there, can we have that spot?  It was huge.  And they said, yeah."

Jim remembers all the volunteers helping with the decorations along the route of the hayride and how he liked to fine-tune the look. "I was a detail guy".

While the newly proposed Birch Grove Hayride is being promoted as family-friendly, Jim Moss remembers the original hayride as more scary and adult-themed.

'At some point, they kind of divided it up, where it was more for kids, where it was just the lights and stuff. But there were some other nights that were haunted. It was scary, especially as dark as that road was."

Jim remembers the hayride being open up to eight nights, including two weekends every October.

"We had huge crowds, we had three wagons going and three tractors, and we couldn't keep up with the crowd at some points. It was really incredible."

It seemed like the Birch Grove Hayride had probably been canceled because of the Pandemic, but Jim tells me it had ended a year or two before Covid-19 came along.