Every Halloween, Johnathan Ruckman drives around Broomfield, cataloging the best holiday displays he finds. If they make the cut, he puts them into his Google map, with a short description of the highlights.Ruckman is a “home haunter,” the name given to lawn decorating enthusiasts.
“I`m pretty well connected to home haunters across the country,” he said, adding he puts a lot into the display at his home on Craftsman Way.
One doesn`t need to go to a professional haunted house to get some chills. In Ruckman`s expert opinion, Broomfield has a number of noteworthy haunts.
“Although there are a good amount of people who decorate or put out lights etc., these are those who`ve gone one step further,” he said of those he has mapped this year. “These are what I would consider homes worth people making the drive to go see.”
Ruckman isn`t alone in getting in the Halloween spirit.
Every year, Jim O`Dell makes a long “haunted hallway” with 10 or so actors carefully tucked away, ready to pounce from the least likely nooks and crannies.
And the home at 13941 Tincup Circle draws thousands to its Christmas display, but many consider the Halloween light show as good, if not better. Straddling the line between professional and home display, Frightmare has been around for 27 years, and charges admission, but it`s all built at the home of Josh Holder in the unincorporated land just across the border of Broomfield at 108th Avenue and Old Wadsworth.
“My dad bought this house to do it,” Holder said of the haunted experience.
When his father died in 1999, Holder carried on the family tradition.
A house-flipper by trade, he builds sets in his downtime, the most recent being outfitting of an old 19th century barn. He is constantly building, tearing down and rebuilding.
“We were the first,” he said of his home haunt.
His father, Brad, had seen some haunted houses elsewhere, and decided they needed one.
“He always looking to have fun,” Holder said of his father.
Holder`s collection includes antique plows and a hearse.
He said he gets applications throughout the year from people wanting to be actors, even though Frightmare is only open for business in October.
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