Eric Lowther started out making haunted houses in a friend’s basement at the age of 12, then at his grandparents’ house, neighbors’ houses, and finally his parent’s home. And when he finally bought his own home in 1999 he created a haunted house in the front yard that got larger every year until he was finally forced to move it to a professional location or be shut down by his neighbors. That was when he opened Haunted Overload at Coppal House Farm in Lee, New Hampshire.Using his skills as a graphic artist, Lowther designs and creates incredible monsters as tall as 34 feet, using telephone poles to support them. Exquisite Jack-o-Lanterns dot the landscape, flickering with inner light against a backdrop of corn and dense woods, topping sentinel scarecrows, lighting the pathway through the darkness.In 2010 the Haunted Overload was moved to its current location, the DeMeritt Hill Farm on Route 155 in Lee, New Hampshire, where the dark New England woods provide an eerie playground for the actors to delight and terrify guests who are struggling to find their way down the tangled path.Founded around 1820 as a family farm by the DeMerritt family, the DeMerritt Hill Farm was converted into an apple orchard in the 1940’s which is when many of the large trees were planted. The farm is open year round and offers many family activities in addition to the seasonal Haunted Overload.Even without the actors, the farm’s landscape can be quite eerie, and Lowther and his crew are often serenaded by coyotes as he works on his creations late into the night in preparation for the upcoming season.Haunted Overload offers daylight walkthroughs with no actors present, so that families with small children can explore the attraction at their leisure, getting a close up look at the intricate craftsmanship involved in creating the enchanted forest. They also have a Friday Night Lite, which features the attraction illuminated in the darkness but once again, without the actors so that patrons can explore the woods at their own pace without distractions.Haunted Overload opens around the second weekend in October and closes after Halloween. In a unique and generous partnership with the Cocheco Valley Humane Society, they donate a full 10% of proceeds before expenses to help sponsor the rescue, rehabilitation and adoption of abandoned and abused pets from the surrounding neighborhoods.Like many haunted houses, the Haunted Overload changes and expands each year, but unlike others, most of the changes at Haunted Overload are creative works of art that are what give the attraction its unique appeal, transforming the dark New Hampshire woods into an eerie, fascinating and strangely frightening place, even without the costumed actors lurking about!