Over almost 20 years, what started as an effort to spice up the Halloween holiday for one family has developed into a popular community event and tradition.

For Halloween 2005, the Brown family created an attraction on their property in Stockton, Calif., where children who visited could get scared if they dare tread; a haunted maze. It was created by one comment from Ryan Brown to his wife Rebekah Brown.

“My husband started this by telling me we’re going to scare kids,” Rebekah Brown said. “I told him that did not sound fun, until our first year. And here we are, 19 years later.”

The Brown family continued their haunted maze attraction in Tustin, Calif., the following year. Eventually, they moved to Colorado in 2011. Each year since, the family has constructed the haunted maze attraction on their property in Jackson Creek North subdivision of Monument, and it has always been open to the public, Brown said.

What’s more, admission to the haunted maze is free.

“Our goal is to give kids and families a safe environment to spend time together and trick-or-treat,” Brown said. “An experience they don’t have to pay for that is unique and memorable.

“We want to create a safe place where people aren’t limited by their income to experience the maze. We don’t want to take away from what it is and limit anyone from partaking.”

The Brown’s Halloween Haunted Maze has been designed with a different appearance and theme each year. No two consecutive years have offered the same decoration of thrills and scares.

The start of the Halloween holiday, for the family, starts at Walmart where they verify the store will allow them to borrow a large amount of pallets to use as the walls and halls of the maze. The pallets are picked up a couple weeks prior to Oct. 31.

The amount of decorations in the Brown’s yard and on their house are extensive, including multiple headstones in the grass and kraken tentacles reaching from the windows. They begin with decorations the first day of each October. Construction of the maze begins around the middle of the month.

Rebekah Brown said, despite all of the tradition’s planning and design, the theme of the haunted maze isn’t created until construction begins. Some themes in past years have been clowns and demon toys, while most recently the theme of the maze was severed heads.

“The theme and layout is decided during the building process,” she said. “We add a couple pieces to our collection every year. It has gotten bigger and better every year.”

In addition to an immense collection of props, smoke machines and animated decorations, this year’s maze design spanned across the driveway of the Brown’s residence into their garage, into the left yard of the property’s lot and eventually out to the curb in front of the house.

The maze is also manned with costumed scarers ready to jump out from corners and hiding spots as well as lurk behind participants through its halls. Brown said the main scarers for the maze are members of the U.S. Air Force Academy men’s water polo team. Ryan Brown is the head coach of the team at USAFA, as well as the program director and owner of Peak Polo.

Other scarers for the tradition are Brown family members, friends and high school athletes from Peak Polo as well. Ryan Brown is known for his love of all holidays and decorating en masse for each of them, his wife said.

Fortunately, with the Brown’s Halloween Haunted Maze growing in size and popularity each year, there have not been any problems with security. Officers from the Monument Police Department have a presence at the event each year.

“We haven’t had any issues,” Rebekah Brown said. “The Monument Police Department has been great, supporting the event every year to assure everyone’s safety.”