218 Everett Street North · Stillwater, Minnesota
Pirates in the harbor, six witches in the side yard, and something with teeth running down the vampires. Up all October. Bring food for the chest.
Who's out there
The front yard
The skeleton crew of the Devil's Daughter has pulled into harbor, drunk off treasure and rum. The ship lies anchored at the docks and the island has gone to debauchery — small scenes of it scattered end to end.
Watch the water. The harbor keeps a great white, and it is never full. Mind the cannons while you're at it. Plenty of visitors have ended up as fodder.
The side yard
Six of them, and no two practice the same kind of magic. The farmer and the pilgrim decided the answer to that was a stake and a fire.
It went badly for them. Both men are still standing in the yard. Neither one is driving himself anymore.
The graveyard
Dracula rides through the headstones in a wagon drawn by a skeleton horse, his cabal drawn in close around him.
They aren't out for the air. There's a werewolf on their heels, and it has been gaining on them all month.
The first ask
Everything that goes in the chest goes to Valley Outreach, the food shelf on Curve Crest here in Stillwater. They serve anyone who walks in, no residency required, and they run on donated food.
Come up the front steps, drop your bag, head back down. That's the whole transaction — you don't need to find anybody or say anything.
Nothing opened, expired, or homemade — they can't hand it out. No frozen or perishable food in the chest; it sits outside all night.
Walking by?
Point your phone here
The second ask
If you'd rather give money than groceries, send it here. Hope Lodge gives people a free place to stay while they're getting cancer treatment in Rochester — no cost to the guest, ever, and the whole thing runs on donations. It's the other half of what this yard is for.
Give to Hope LodgeBefore you come
The display is built to be seen from the sidewalk and the alley — walk the block and you'll see all three scenes. Please don't cut across the lawn. There's low-voltage wire, fog line and buried tile under the grass, and most of it breaks if you step on it.
Come up the front steps to the chest and back down the same way. That's the only path into the yard we're asking people to use.
Street parking on Everett. Please leave the driveway and the hydrant clear and don't block the neighbors' approaches — they put up with a lot in October.
Water-based fog, no strobes anywhere on the property. It gets thick after dark. If that's a problem for someone in your group, come by early in the evening.
Up rain or shine. High wind is the only thing that shuts the fog down, and hard freeze can take the whole display out for a night.
Nothing jumps out at anybody. It's built to be looked at, not to scare you off the sidewalk. Little ones do fine before it's fully dark.
By invitation
If you got a card from us, there's a word on the back. Type it in.