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EAGLE MOUNTAIN — A Utahn with a love of Halloween didn't think he'd be able to do his local haunted house after he was in a terrible car accident, but the community surprised him by building it for him.
Clint Martin said he was first exposed to haunted houses when he was around 3 years old. His father worked at the Utah State Hospital in Provo, and they used to create a haunted castle each Halloween, Martin said. He would often accompany his father when he was building the set and would sometimes get to help scare in the haunted house.
"Basically everything started with my parents," Martin said. "I think really what it was for me was just that experience of being with my dad and scaring people. So I developed a love for Halloween and had great memories with it growing up."
When Martin was 17, he created a haunted house food drive for his Eagle Scout project and garnered almost 600 pounds for the local food bank. He kept his love for haunted houses throughout the years and his family had a goal of opening one.
"It was kind of a family tradition that eventually grew into a family business," he said. "When I was about 21, my parents were separated and later divorced and so the idea of opening up a family haunted house kind of crumbled. But I still wanted to pursue the dream of having a haunted house."
After working towards it for eight years, Martin and his wife fulfilled his dream and opened the Doll House Haunt in Eagle Mountain in 2014, an attraction they hope to build into one of the biggest haunted houses in Utah. However, on July 8, Martin was critically injured in a car accident that killed his brother, 25-year-old Jacob Martin, his friend, 27-year-old Kaela Hernandez and the driver of the other vehicle, 18-year-old Jessie N. Wilkerson.
The group was headed to a work convention in Las Vegas when they were hit by a wrong-way driver on I-15 near Fillmore, the Utah Highway Patrol said. Martin was the front passenger and suffered five broken ribs, a broken nose, spinal compression fractures, a collapsed lung, a ruptured diaphragm, punctured intestines and a ruptured spleen. He was transported to an area hospital in critical condition.
"I shouldn't be here, but I am," he said.
He spent the next several months recovering from his extensive injuries and because he still can't lift more than five pounds, he didn't think he would be able to build and run his haunted house this year.
"In the hospital, we decided that we weren't going to do it," Martin said. "When the community found out … they offered to help set it up. We had over 20 volunteers on a weekend just show up and set everything up. It was amazing. Like three weeks worth of work done in one day. It was incredible."
"Though a terrible thing had happened, there have been so many good things that have come from it," he said. "Building new relationships and seeing a lot of people serve has been overwhelming. … We are just so grateful. I wish there was a word stronger than thank you because really I can't say it enough."
The Doll House Haunt is located at 3600 Pony Express Parkway in Eagle Mountain. It is open Monday and Thursday from 7:30-10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 7:30-11 p.m. There are family friendly activities offered on Saturday afternoon, including a bounce house, scavenger hunt, face painting and games with prizes.
