Halloweentown
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When a little kid imagines the perfect Halloween — festivities starting way before October 31, multiple opportunities to wear costumes and get treats, haunted houses and games that aren't too spooky — it might look a lot like Anoka, Minnesota.
It all started back in 1920, with a carrot instead of a stick. Civic-minded citizens of Anoka, Minnesota, could see the annual Halloween mischief coming from a hundred miles away. Over the years they had grown weary of scrubbing soapy messages off windows, righting outhouses, and hauling loose cows home from Main Street.
Anyone can dream up a punishment. Anokans dreamed up a party. They figured if they threw the Halloween to end all Halloweens, they'd distract the youngsters from trouble. So they planned a costume parade, made some popcorn, and rigged up a bonfire. (Okay, these were easily-entertained felons.)
To say that the idea of an all-city Halloween party caught on would be like saying there's a little tall grass out there on the prairie. As the years passed, Anokans piled more festivities onto their Halloween itinerary: pillow fights, kangaroo courts, conga lines dancing through town. In 1937, Congress declared Anoka "Halloween Capital of the World."
Next page: See photos from Anoka's Halloween extravaganza
