CHEYENNE, Wyo. — On any given October day, Cheyenne houses are cozy and calm dwellings. By Halloween night, however, they’re transform into horrifying, haunting — but still kid-friendly — attractions.
Two local families are decorating their properties to provide a free spooky experience for community members of all ages to enjoy.
Upon entering the Raines’s driveway at 6530 Happy Jack Road, one can immediately spot a miniaturized Halloweentown in the front yard, complete with plastic playhouses draped in cobwebs and inflatable skeleton and pumpkin residents.
The display is part of Dave and Hilary Raines’s Little Haunted Happy Jack Village, which will open to the public on Saturday, Oct. 28 from 7 to 10 p.m.
The couple enjoys organizing community events, including annual toy and food drives as well as Halloween parties with family members and friends. This year, they wanted to combine the two.
“My wife was like, ‘Let’s do something for the community,’ Dave said. “Since Halloween was my favorite holiday, I immediately jumped on.”
Unsure of whether people would feel comfortable going inside the Raines’s house, Hilary suggested decorating their yard into an interactive “haunted village.” In an effort to gather tiny houses for the project, Dave posted a request on the Cheyenne Connections Facebook page.
“Some people said, ‘Well, mine’s a little beat up,’ … and I said, ‘That’s perfect, they’re for our haunted village,'” Dave said. “So we gathered up everyone’s houses and brought them out here.”
Dave, who grew up in Cheyenne, used to attend elaborate Halloween parties at his grandparents’ Leisher Avenue home. A friend of his grandfather, who saw the Raines promoting the village on Facebook, recently commented on the connection.
“He thought that was so cool [of us] carrying on the tradition and doing something like that,” Dave said. “Even though that wasn’t the intent, I thought it was kind of cool.”
Like Raines, resident Alex Tasha grew up enjoying Halloween and taking part in festivities. A Southern California native, Tasha’s favorite fall-time activities included visiting the Knott Berry Farm theme park’s annual Halloween Haunt.
Hoping to capture and bring the same spirit of horror and entertainment to Cheyenne, Tasha and his wife have been setting up one of the city’s largest Halloween displays for the last four years.
“The Graveyard on Pine” is located at 2875 Pine Drive and will be open to the public from 5 to 9 p.m. on Oct. 31. The duo sees an average of 1,500 to 2,000 visitors a year, with about 700 kids coming for candy.
Although Tasha isn’t done decorating his house, passersby can still admire the front lawn, which is littered with an assortment of plastic headstones, skeletons and spiders. The real magic happens on Halloween night, when Tasha illuminates the finished display with colorful lights and fog machines.
“We try to make sure it’s scary, but not too much, but also not too happy,” Tasha said. “We want it to be awesome, so even little kids can have fun here.”
Most of the decorations are store-bought or supplied from other local haunted house enthusiasts. Tasha has a few he makes himself, including “Spooky Town,” a mini Halloween-themed town (much, much smaller than the Raines’s) and the “Mad Scientist Lab” which is displayed in his garage and filled with outlandish scientific items.
His favorite part of putting on the display is watching people’s reactions to it.
“I want [visitors] to have the experience I had as a kid,” he said, “even if they can’t have all of it.”
A list of other Cheyenne and Laramie County Halloween events can be viewed here.
