The nation’s “witch capital,” Salem, Massachusetts, is rallying to keep Halloween celebrations going for an expected one million visitors in light of the government shutdown.
Salem is the historic site of the infamous witch trials of the late 1600s that saw 19 people hanged, one man pressed to death, and at least five others sent to perish in jail.
“The recent government shutdown forced the closure of a Salem National Park Service Visitor Center and its bathrooms,” reported CNN’s Fredricka Whitfield, “and that’s when city leaders rallied to reopen the visitor center, with the community covering the costs.”
Whitfield spoke with Annie Harris, CEO of Essex heritage, a nonprofit that promotes local history and helps staff the visitor center. She described the “spooky season” as “huge” for the city of 43,000 people.
“The visitor center is fully open, and the bathrooms are working, and we have maps and information, and volunteers and our staff that are there really helping the visitors. But behind the scenes, it’s a big difference for us.,” Harris said.
She added, “We’ve had to pull in our staff, a partner of ours, Eastern National, who, they run the bookstore there. They’ve had to bring in a lot of staff. The Park Service, we actually pay for another Park Service ranger to help us there, as well. So, it’s
Whitfield asked where that money came from.
“When the Park Service said that we could reopen the visitor center, they said, though, you’re going to have to cover the costs. The utility costs and the custodial costs and the park ranger. And that’s about almost $19,000,” Harris said. “So, I reached out to the mayor and I said, you know, I think we can keep the visitor center open, but this is very expensive. But he really geared up his staff. They went out, they put a call out to the business community, and we had a tremendous response. In fact, we raised the money in 48 hours.”
Watch above via CNN.