Alley-side ghoul at Deb Potter’s fright house. (Mike Swasey)

Halloween brings out the ghoulish spirit in neighborhoods each year. For some in Skagway, it’s more than just a chance to dress up in costumes and eat candy, it’s a chance to create elaborate fright scenes and haunted yards. 

Donna Griffard has been creeping out her neighbors for the last 20 years or so at her house on the corner of 5th Avenue and Alaska Street in Skagway. This year, with all the fall rain and an early ground freeze, she was slower than normal in getting her traditional Halloween decorations set up.

Griffard said, “The little four-year-olds, they started bullying me, they started egging me on. They’re like, Hey, what’s going on? Where’s the decorations?” 

Donna Griffard in her Laboratory. (Mike Swasey)

As she tells it, the decorations were in her attic. It’s a month-long celebration of all things spooky at the Griffard house. She has a giant inflatable spider in the front yard, several mock graves with headstones that read “Kenny Breathe,” and “Art Underhill.” Plus, there’s a new addition this year, the laboratory.

“We have bleeding hearts creepy-crawly hands… That freaks a lot of kids out. Laboratory lighting. And some of our things are motion or noise activated,” said Griffard.

Inside what was originally built this summer as a greenhouse Griffard has an autopsy table set up with life-size bones she’s convinced were molded from a cadaver. 

She says she goes all out every year because it adds to Skagway’s Halloween lore.

Charley the dog isn’t sure about these decorations. (Mike Swasey)

“Everybody remembers, you know, that guy down the street that gave out the full-size candy bars. People remember the creepy mean guy that made us tell a joke or do a trick before he’d give us the candy. And people remember the guy that never had any candy, so he’d throw quarters or dollar bills out the door. You know, everybody remembers those people. All of a sudden it clicked in my head. And I thought, hey, I wonder if we’re going to be those people that kids remember when they’re grown up, and they tell their kids about it? And I thought maybe, that’s why I do this,” said Griffard.

But Donna Griffard isn’t alone in Skagway’s fright scene. There are houses on Third Avenue that join in the decoration fun, there are haunted alleyways in town, and there’s one yard in particular that has caught her attention.

“Somebody down the road is cranking it up a notch every year. Bring it on Deb Potter, bring it on,” taunted Griffard.

Deb Potter bought a home in Skagway a couple of years ago and says it was Donna Griffard that inspired her to join the fright fest. She has a haunted pirate ship in the yard, creepy projections in her top-floor bedroom window, and a full array of spooky sounds. Her house is in the alleyway between 12th and 13th Avenue just off Broadway Street.

Deb Potter’s fright house graveyard. (Mike Swasey)

“Oh, do you want to take a tour through the graveyard?” Asked Potter.

The graveyard sits behind a white picket fence. There’s a one-handed skeleton wearing a
Las Vegas fanny pack and graves with headstones that read “Trav L. Plans, gone but not forgotten,” and:

“Gurl S. Figure who existed from 1980 to 2020. Yeah, rest in peace. Hopefully, she will rise again but it’s not looking hopeful,” joked Potter.

There’s a motion-activated ghoul that sits right on the side of the alley that is sure to spook trick or treaters on Sunday night.

“I will say this, there will be treats. Maybe even tricks,” said Potter.

She says she and her then four-year-old buddy Emmet started a tradition of army-man crawling around Donna Griffard’s yard a few years ago, and that’s been her inspiration to create such a lavish audio/visual presentation, replete with thunder, lightning, screams, and howls.

“It’s really, really cool to kind of hide behind your windows, and watch the cars drive by your house and hear the reactions and know that you’re really, like, sparking joy in a lot of people,” said Potter.

“You want to check out the pirate ghost ship?” Asked Potter.

The captain of the pirate ship is adorned in a glow-in-the-dark Janet Jackson Rhythm Nation 30th Anniversary concert t-shirt and it’s fishing for ghost fish with a glowing fishing rod.

Potter agrees with Griffard that decorating this year with all the inclement weather has been difficult, but she swears there isn’t a competition between the two of them.

A caged skeleton decoration at Donna Griffard’s house. (Mike Swasey)

“Does Donna have a laboratory? Absolutely. Do I have a laboratory? Sure don’t. Do I have thunder and lightning and projections? Sure do. Does Donna have projections this year? She sure doesn’t,” taunted Potter.

There’s a long list of Halloween events in both Skagway and Haines this weekend. In Skagway, it’s Teen Night at the library at 6:30 on Friday where they’ll make glow-in-the-dark lights.

On Saturday in Skagway the rec center will host Spooky Spinning at 3:15 p.m. and in Haines, there’s a Lights Out drive-in movie for teens and adults in the pool parking lot starting at 6 p.m.

On Sunday in Haines kids of all ages are invited to the Southeast Alaska State Fairgrounds from 1-3 p.m. for Halloween trick or treating and games. There will also be trick or treating at the Skagway public library from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday.