Here is a brief history of our haunts...two houses, two towns, 14 years
1992
In a last minute flurry, we decided to attend a Halloween Party at our Church. We were asked to decorate a room for Trick or Treaters to visit. We slapped together a Hobo and a Gypsy costume and we made our first prop, a crystal ball. This prop was made from a square box, with a hole cut in the top, and we inserted a simple globe shaped lighting fixture. Inside the box was a "light sweeper" which is a spotlight used by DJs on a dance floor. We pointed it straight up into the fixture with a light blue lens and a swirling effect was achieved.
Unfortunately, no pictures were taken of this year.
Our simple display was met with a lot of enthusiasm. This started us down a path of trying to outdo the year before. For the next several years we continued to "adopt" a room and decorate it for the T.O.T.s. The early years we did not do much as far as props...they started when we moved into a house with a real front yard.
1993
Our first son was born this year and we got him started early. We dressed up as a homeless family and sat a room at our church with a "Will Work For ???, but we don't do windows, dishes, etc."
1994
Blah! Blah!
Our Son ran around all night saying "Blah! Blah!". This picture was too cute not to post it and embarrass him later in life.
1995
We went with more classic costumes this year. The Phantom of the Opera, a Witch, Dracula, and a Ghost.1996
This year we went with a pirate theme. We decorated our church room as a treasure cave, complete with skeletons, gold, and bats (unfortunately, we did not find a picture).Our skeleton costumes are simply dark clothes with white First Aid tape...simple and cheap.
1997
This year we decided to go with a Batman theme. The boys were Batman and Robin, the adults were Batgirl and The Riddler.
We decorated the church room as the Bat Cave.
1998
Our boys wanted to do superheroes again this year. The boys were Superman and Spiderman. The parents were Lex Luthor and Venom.We decorated our church room with gobs of spider webs.
1999
This year we decided to go with The classic Monsters. Our youngest was wrapped up like a mummy.
Once again we decorated a room at our church.
2000
We decided to go simple this year. We all dressed up in skeletons using all black clothing and white First Aid tape.
The church room is decorated in a graveyard style.
2001
Our first year in a real house. We started to think bigger, we made more tombstones.
We created a static prop (made out of PVC) we named "pumpkin guy" because of the Jack-o-Lantern mask we put on him.
We also created a static Witch prop (also PVC).
We used a cardboard cutout of the Wolfman for our front window. When he shows up, our neighbors know the decorating is starting for the year.
Our Flying Crank Ghost, Clarissa, was born. We ran out of time and money before we could build the crank, but we displayed her anyway. We hung her from a flagpole and shone a black light that was mounted on a couple of shepherd's hooks.
We got more scene setters for our windows and added some lights.
2002
This year we finally get animatronics. Our Flying Crank Ghost, Clarissa, gets life. This was the first year with the Flying Crank Ghost in the Mausoleum.
Our Witch becomes an animatronic too, she now stirs her pot.
The Cemetery gets a "real" fence, many more tombstones added. We also add lightning and more lighted decorations.
The Skeleton cage is added, with last year's pesky Trick or Treater on display.
The whole family continues to get dressed up. This year we have Spiderman, a ninja, a policeman zombie, Lady Death and Death.
2003
The big story this year was the snow. As darkness descended, so did the white stuff.
The Kicking legs made their debut and promptly shorted out because of the snow (and the computer power supply we were using).
The Cemetery expands again and more tombstones are added. More fence is created to keep guests from going into the graveyard from the back.
The family dresses up as a Devil, a Pirate, a Mad Scientist, Mr. and Mrs. Grim Reaper.
2004
The Kicking Legs move from the bush to under the lawnmower. We add the Lawnmower Man static prop.
The skeleton cage gets moved to the tree.
We also add some aluminum wolf cutouts that we donated to us by a family member who worked for a laser
cutting shop. We officially named the Cemetery Wolf Hollow.
cutting shop. We officially named the Cemetery Wolf Hollow.
More ghosts are seen flying around.
The family dressed up as a Devil and four Reapers.
2005
We went a little prop crazy this year...five new ones. This was the year that www.hauntedwolfhollow.com became a reality. It is also the year we joined the Halloween-L e-mail list and we went to Halloween PropMaster's Rocky Mountain Gathering.
Our Monster Mud Crypt Keeper. The lantern is a hacked oil lamp found at Wal-Mart. We added an electric flicker bulb.
A little Mormon humor. The "children" are 2 Bart Skeletons an a Mr. Thrifty Skeleton. The "Parents" are PVC frames with Bucky Skulls attached.
Our new Coffin and Corpse. We used the plans from http://coffinplans.casadesade.com/ and also http://www.thatsnotright.com/projh02.html. We decided to used a green lining because red just screams Dracula. We are putting our corpse in instead. The angle here doesn't look great, but it is a toe-pincher.
A hacked K-Mart Flying Ghost. We removed the silly ghost and attached a foam skull and cheesecloth instead.
Fester and Rott, the joke tellers. Fester, the skeleton, uses a Scary Terry Audio driver to move his jaw when he talks.
Rott, the jack-o-lantern, uses a Thunder and Lightning machine bought at Target to flash when he talks.
We went to the office Halloween Party as Death and Lady Death, two skeletons and Darth Vader
At home we dressed up as a Werewolf, Black Widow, a Reaper, a Horror, and Darth Vader.
2006
This year we added more animatronics.
Our leering prop make his debut. The coffin gets a new occupant and is now controlled by a Prop-1 controller.
The corpse moved to a wheelchair and gained movement.
Our Grave Grabber moves in.
