The idea of a haunted house sort of event at Fort Casey State Park isn’t all that scary to Jon Crimmins.

It is the fear of a trip or a fall that has kept him up at night.

Safety concerns have caused Crimmins and other organizers of Fort Casey’s first Haunted Fort to condense and tone down the event into a more family-friendly affair.

The event, originally envisioned to encompass a greater part of the old fort, will take place one weekend only, Oct. 23-24, in and around the Admiralty Head lighthouse and nearby Battery Reuben Turman at the state park in Coupeville.

“This is our first year,” said Crimmins, Area Manager for Central Whidbey State Parks, who lives at Fort Casey. “We really wanted to make sure we have all of our ducks in a row and make sure it’s a safe event for everyone.

“There were concerns with liability and risk management, putting folks through the entire fort in the dark at night and how we would mitigate things like trip hazards and lighting. It’s not a safe area for the daylight, so if you bring people in the middle of the night and scare them, we just didn’t want this to end up being a really scary night with people getting hurt. It’s supposed to be fun and scary.”

And that combination is exactly what is being planned for the event, which is a fundraiser for lighthouse restoration and is being sponsored by the Keepers of Admiralty Head Lighthouse.

The event will take place from 6:30-10:30 p.m. each night and be centered around the 112-year-old lighthouse, where younger guests may participate in children’s games and listen to ghost stories.

From there, guests will take a short guided walk to Battery Reuben Turman, a relic of the former U.S. seacoast fortification built in the 1890s.

A stairway leads down to two chambers where frights await. And there are more in other sections.

Sharon Sharpe, a program specialist with State Parks who’s based at the lighthouse, said the battery area is designed for children age 10 and older or “younger ones with a parent.”

“It should be a fun event,” said Crimmins. “We’re not trying to traumatize people for the rest of their lives or anything like that.”

More than 60 volunteers stepped forward to help put on the Haunted Fort.

Admission is $7 per person or $25 per family.

Guests will park in the picnic area of the park, then be led by escort along a lit trail in the woods until they reach the lighthouse.

“We really want to see how this event goes,” Crimmins said. “We’d love to keep doing something like this year after year and maybe we can expand in the future. But right now, we just want to make sure we could do a good job with a smaller area and just see how it goes.”