ROBERTSDALE — Styx and Bones Haunted Forest in Robertsdale is the Halloween brainchild of Billy Gates, an Atmore-raised Baldwin County resident who uses the attraction as a way to express his creativity during the spookiest time of the year.

Gates said that while growing up in Atmore, he had a middle school teacher who would always do his own haunted house in his classroom during October, with Gates and all of his classmates going to walk through the maze he constructed. Although intrigued, it wasn't until adulthood when he decided to start his own.

Around 2019, Gates and his crew took over Forty South Farms, a former petting zoo. To help raise money to care for the animals, Gates decided to start a Halloween attraction. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 setting them back, Styx and Bones has since grown into an annual spot to go to in Baldwin County during Halloween season.

"The beginning was just to help raise money for the animals, but what's been the most rewarding now is realizing that I'm entertaining people with memories that will last them their lifetime pretty much," Gates said. "That to me was really rewarding because as I started this, I never realized I was an entertainer, and that's what it became, you really are entertaining."

In creating the haunted forest, Gates said the goal was to make something realistic, wanting to make visitors feel they are actually stranded in a haunted forest. Gates has been hands-on when it comes to Styx and Bones, working on site during the Halloween offseason to bring something new and special to patrons every year.

"Throughout the whole year when I'm not at work, I'm out here working, trying to create something because you got to bring something every year," Gates said. "We always change it up. Every year that you come here, you're gonna see something totally different. We're gonna twist it."

Gates gets much help from a revolving door of local volunteers, including from his family such as his wife, Chelsea, and kids of all ages from both Baldwin County and his hometown of Atmore. Many of these kids can be seen as actors within the forest, lurking in the dark waiting for the right moment to come out. Most of the time, even their parents are out there as well.

"We really have fun," Gates said. "My littles, that's what I call them, but they're great, man. They do it better than some of the adults. They just feel passionate and they give it their all."

Gates takes a laid back approach, saying he doesn't like auditioning. They teach the actors how to feed off one another and have tried to teach them the art of misdirection when it comes to scaring people while also taking safety into account, saying he doesn't allow the kids to be their jump-scare actors due to the unpredictable reactions of scared patrons.

This year, they are bringing back a survivor horror experience called "Escape or Die." An '80s slasher themed experience, they drive guests out to a remote location in a Cadillac where they have an hour to solve clues in order to escape. He said it was all inspired by a trip he took to Virginia where he did an escape game inside an old hospital.

Styx and Bones Haunted Forest is located at 27600 County Road 64 in Robertsdale and is open every weekend in October. Visit www.styxandbones.com for more information.