This month Evergreen Park & Recreation District is running two Halloween events at Buchanan Park, and crews are working on three construction projects at the same park. The overlap comes from how EPRD is paying for and building out the park. Nightmare at 1520, the haunted house, is meant to cover its own costs and, if it does better, to help pay for the district's free community events. Meanwhile, the skatepark and pavilion are expected to be finished this month too.
If you go to Buchanan Park on a Friday night in October, you are seeing the last weeks of the old park and the first finished pieces of the new one.
The haunted house in a building the district bought
Nightmare at 1520 takes place in a building next to Buchanan Fields. It was a home, and later a business space, before EPRD purchased it. The district's event page sends visitors to 1521 Bergen Parkway for entry. This is the third year EPRD has run a haunted house for all of October. Kathy Dekker, the district's events and marketing coordinator, told the Canyon Courier that, as far as the district knows, it is the only haunted house in the foothills.
The parks operations team built it, not an outside promoter. Shawn Gevedon, EPRD's parks operations supervisor, says he set up horror scenes in his front yard as a kid in Ohio. He pitched the haunt and got support from Executive Director Cory Vander Veen.
"There's a lot of love in this one. I think we have done a really good job and created something people are really going to enjoy." Shawn Gevedon, EPRD parks operations supervisor, in the Canyon Courier
The walk-through takes about 10 minutes. There is a DJ outside, and actors work the ticket line, followed by strobe lights and several "scare zones." Twelve to fourteen actors take part, some from Evergreen High School's theater department and other local theaters. If you don't want actors to approach you, pick up one of the optional glow-in-the-dark foam "anti-scare" sticks. Dekker is clear that it is a real haunted house and not recommended for young children.
Tickets are $20 to $50 and include unlimited entry options. You can buy them on the district's Nightmare at 1520 page. Ticket sales are what tie the haunt to the rest of the calendar. Dekker said the district hopes to "break even," and ideally to make enough to help pay for its free community events.
What's left on the October calendar
As of October 4, the first weekend is over. The haunt opened October 2 and 3 on Friday and Saturday. Starting October 15, it also opens on Thursdays.
| Date | Event at Buchanan Park | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Fri. Oct. 9, Sat. Oct. 10 | Nightmare at 1520 | 7 to 9:30 p.m. |
| Thu. Oct. 15 through Sat. Oct. 17 | Nightmare at 1520 | 7 to 9:30 p.m. |
| Thu. Oct. 22 through Sat. Oct. 24 | Nightmare at 1520 | 7 to 9:30 p.m. |
| Thu. Oct. 29 | Nightmare at 1520 | 7 to 9:30 p.m. |
| Fri. Oct. 30 | Trick-or-Treat Trail, then E.T. | Trail 4 to 8 p.m. |
| Fri. Oct. 30, Sat. Oct. 31 | Nightmare at 1520 | 7 to 9:30 p.m. |
Friday, October 30 is the busiest night of the month. The Trick-or-Treat Trail runs at the Buchanan Park Ball Fields from 4 to 8 p.m., and the haunt opens next door at 7. For that hour, families with small children and teenagers lined up for the scares will be at the same park. The trail has booths where local volunteers hand out candy, plus inflatable play structures and food trucks. According to the district's event page, trick-or-treaters need a ticket and the other ball-field activities are free.
That night is also the last Movie in the Park. The series has run on the last Friday of each month since June and ends with "E.T." September's film was "Jurassic Park," shown with a Touch the Truck event.
The fences around the fields
If you've driven Evergreen Parkway past the park lately, you've seen the construction. Three projects are underway at the 42-acre park. The skatepark and pavilion are expected to be completed in October. The swimming pool addition, an 11,000-square-foot natatorium, is due next spring. The district held groundbreakings for the aquatics expansion on April 2, the all-wheels skatepark on May 26, and the pavilion on June 10.
EPRD's September 2026 newsletter gives the most recent dated progress report:
- Concrete poured at the new pool
- Skatepark concrete forms being built
- Concrete being poured at the pavilion, with trusses going up in September
- Floors being refinished at both the Wulf and Buchanan Park recreation centers
The October completion target came from the Canyon Courier's on-site reporting, and as of early October it is still a forecast. If the skatepark or pavilion slips into November, that fits EPRD's own caution that its schedule is "preliminary" and subject to permitting, procurement and coordination. The park stays open during the work. A resolution in the EPRD board's August 25 minutes says Buchanan Park "is open to the public."
Vander Veen told the Canyon Courier that the three projects are being built at the same time to save money on grading, road construction and other shared work. That choice explains why so much of the park is torn up at once this fall.
A skatepark built by skaters
California Skateparks is building the skatepark, and Jaxon Statzell, an Evergreen High School graduate who works for the company, designed it. Crew manager Curt Baker told the Canyon Courier that everyone on his crew skates. He likes how the park fits into the hillside along Evergreen Parkway, so it "looks like it belongs there."
Baker's comparison point is the small skatepark behind the Wulf Recreation Center. "It's such an upgrade from the other park," he said. The community helped shape the design. EPRD's public survey on the project drew 314 responses before design and construction documents moved ahead.
Where El Rancho fits, and where it doesn't yet
The pavilion has a connection to one of Evergreen's best-known landmarks. On February 19, the Colorado Sun reported that the El Rancho site will become a QuikTrip gas station with a 5,000-square-foot convenience store, and that the truck-stop element had been dropped from the plan. In a compromise announced with EPRD, QuikTrip agreed to have El Rancho's sign and its rounded wood siding reused in a green room and community space at the planned Buchanan Park arts pavilion. EPRD describes the idea on its Essence of El Rancho page.
That reuse is still a plan, not something you can see. The district's July 21 board minutes discuss signage for the future "Bear Creek Pavilion," and the September newsletter reports concrete and trusses at the pavilion. Neither one says the El Rancho materials have been salvaged or installed. On the El Rancho side, the most recent dated planning status found was from June 17, when county case-manager comments went back to the applicant and a third referral was required. No published report found so far says demolition has started.
What the money behind it looks like
The district is putting about $22 million into projects at Buchanan Park, based on a strategic planning process that began in 2023. EPRD credits property tax contributions and voter approval of ballot measure 6C in 2023. Smaller amounts have come in alongside that. In August 2025, Friends of Buchanan Park reported raising more than $80,000, split among the inclusive playground, the performance pavilion and the skatepark. EPRD also received a $202,500 grant in January 2025 from the Jeffco Open Space Trails Partnership Program.
Compared with that budget, a haunted house that sells $20 to $50 tickets is a small line item. It does show the same approach, though. Nightmare at 1520 aims to pay for itself and help fund the district's free community events, while the larger construction budget builds the park those events will use later. The work won't be done when the skatepark opens. An all-abilities adventure park, a gym and field house, and an outdoor game area with cornhole and outdoor chess are still planned, and parts of Buchanan Park will be under construction until 2028.
At Yvette Putt | Explore Evergreen Colorado, I keep track of park projects like Buchanan Park's because they change what owners around Bergen Park can say about where they live. If you'd like to know how a finished skatepark, pavilion and pool addition might figure into your home's story, start with an instant home valuation and we can talk it through.
