Ottawa County worth touring for Halloween home displays

OTTAWA COUNTY – Giant pumpkins, morbid hearses and towering skeletons, oh my!

From Put-In-Bay, to Port Clinton, to Oak Harbor and Elmore, there is no shortage of spooky displays in the Ottawa County area.

In the last few years, over-the-top Halloween decorations have taken over homes and yards and as the holiday’s popularity grows, so do the displays.

Most displays are on private property and are to be seen but not touched.

Port Clinton-Catawba Island

For Michelle Kokinda, of Catawba Island Township, decorating for Halloween has been a lifelong love. She started going over-the-top with her decor in the last five to six years she said.

At her 2768 Sand Road home, Kokinda has the popular 12-foot skeleton from Home Depot, surrounded by dozens of vintage "blow molds" of pumpkins, ghosts and other ghoulish characters.

The seasonal outdoor décor, known as blow molds, have become increasingly popular in recent years as the companies that made them went out of business and as collectors remember them from their childhood, according to Fank Witsil with the Detroit Free Press.

The decorations became especially popular in the 1970s, and decorations from that time are now among some of the most desirable. The decorations are durable, enduring snow, rain, heat and strong gusts of wind if weighed down.

Kokinda has made a tightknit group of friends from all across the country on websites where people list blow molds to sell and trade. She's even traveled as far as Arkansas for them.

Now she has more than 150 blow molds, and the most rare or fragile ones are kept in her pole barn, she said.

Her favorite is a 1995 Bela Lugosi as Dracula blow mold, which she keeps protected in the barn.Every Halloween season Kokinda hosts parties for children and adults alike to see her collections and enjoy them.

"I do it because it makes them, and me, happy," Kokinda said of her decorating.

Michael Key, who lives in the 1500 block of South Hickory Grove Road in Port Clinton, said he gets his Halloween décor ideas from YouTube and Facebook.

Key and his wife started decorating in 2016 with just a few skeletons dressed as pirates. He handles the outside decorating and his wife handles the inside of the house, he said.

He said it takes several weeks to put all of the décor out, while his wife takes about a month to do the inside.

“It gets bigger every year,” Key said. “I usually try for a little humor too.”

This year there is a construction crew, a skeleton girl taking a selfie, pumpkin people with their pumpkin baby, a fisherman with a mermaid, as well as much more on his lot.

Key said he enjoys decorating and the neighbors enjoy it too. Last year a family from Ukraine who were staying nearby came by to take pictures of the Keys' display, he said.

Elmore-Woodville

Woodville residents Steve and Lori Damschroder at 311 Maple St. said Halloween is their favorite time of year. The family will always go “all out” with costumes and decorating.

Though their children are grown now, their son flies in from Texas for a week during the season to be part of the local trick or treat night and to dress up, Lori said.

“We have been decorating for about 13 years now,” Lori Damschroder said. “Each year it gets bigger and we add a large animatronic to our display.”

They convert the front yard into a graveyard and closer to Halloween they install an elaborate lighting and fog set up, she said. They even built a mausoleum this year, complete with a beheaded woman holding her own head.

Lori’s favorite decoration is the 9-foot tall dark angel animatronic, which has a huge wingspan, a large sword and talks.

“I love it when we put him out in our graveyard display,” she said.

But their 1996 Cadillac Fleetwood Superior hearse is the icing on top, she said.

They purchased the all black hearse from Murray’s Cool Cars in Bryan, and they take it to hearse shows in Ohio and Michigan, as well as help their friends in McCutchenville, who own the “Deceased Vintage” shop with advertising and sponsorships in local parades.

They love to drive the Cadillac around town.

“It’s a very comfortable ride,” Lori said.

All things paranormal are a family affair for the Damschroders, who run a paranormal team “Spookhouse Ventures.” They approach things with a healthy balance of curiosity, intrigue, skepticism and realism.

“We follow the science behind certain happenings and we try to explain what is going on through many different facets,” she said.

Put-in-Bay

People are in the Halloween spirit over on South Bass Island as well.

Put-In-Bay resident Dustin Shaffer changes his set up about every week, moving the displays around each time he mows his front lawn at 380 Lakeview Avenue.

This is the first year Shaffer and his wife decorated the yard, he said.

Shaffer has the popular 12-foot skeleton that towers over a few 7-foot skeletons, 5-footers and a large group of smaller ones. Random bones and even skeleton flamingos all make an appearance as well.

“It’s an addiction,” Shaffer said. “It started with just one 12-foot skeleton, now I got him a 10-foot girlfriend.”

Christmas isn’t forgotten either, as the Shaffers have a large blow-up Santa on an airplane, making the yard into Santa’s runway.

Shaffer hopes to dress his 12-foot skeleton, whom many in the Facebook groups call “Skelly,” in a Santa suit and build a control tower.

“I like seeing the kids, and adults, laugh when they drive by on golf carts,” Dustin said. “We get a lot of people stopping and taking pictures standing with them.”

It is all about spreading joy, he said.

Besides, he said, “there’s a skeleton inside us all.”

Other displays to visit

PORT CLINTON — 1000 block of Ash and Third Streets, northwest corner.

OAK HARBOR — 100 block of Locust Street (Ohio 19) and 400 to 500 block of W. Ohio 163.

ELMORE — 200 to 300 block of Rice Street and 200 to 300 block of Jackson Street.

This article originally appeared on Port Clinton News Herald: Take a drive around Ottawa County to see displays this Halloween