Haunted Harvest comes to life with the 108th Hiawatha Halloween Frolic

May 23, 2024

The Hiawatha 108th Annual Halloween Frolic is one for the books and this year’s festivities brought out some floats and costumes in line with this year’s theme “Haunted Harvest.”

The weekend’s festivities kicked off with Business Trick-or-Treat on Friday afternoon, followed by community trick-or-treating. Saturday brought another evening of community trick-or-treating, along with a few other special events.

The Brown County Historical Society — along with the Hiawatha Chamber and Visitors Bureau brought back their annual Cemetery Tours and Downtown Walking Tours. This year they flip-flopped the times and offered three separate cemetery tours in the afternoon. Members of the Historical Society brought out the tractor and trolley to transport visitors to each of the cemeteries for a glimpse at Hiawatha’s past. That evening, were two tours of the downtown — by lantern light — as the groups learned about the historic downtown buildings.

In the afternoon, was a special downtown business event that drew dozens of shoppers to nine participating businesses for Spooktacular Saturday in downtown Hiawatha. Businesses went together to offer $150 in Chamber Bucks — won by Audra Cave — in a drawing for every shopper who turned in a punch card. Each of the businesses had their own give-aways and specials.

Other events over the weekend included the Hiawatha Parks and Recreation Trunk-or-Treat activity on Sunday afternoon, along with the Festival of Frights haunted house at the Fisher Center — also held last Thursday. Hundreds attended the haunted house events.

Monday dawned sunny and beautiful with highs near 70. The townspeople got ready for a busy day of Halloween Frolic in their hometown. In the morning, businesses in town donned their most creative costumes for a Business Costume Contest, sponsored by GNBank. By noon, Chris Diller and the Chamber had Halloween music filling the streets as costumed characters and floats began making their way toward the downtown courthouse square for registration and judging.

The Brown County Historical Society’s Memorial Auditorium and Museum, 611 Utah, was filled with costumed kids and families of all ages for the Miss Mary Children’s Costume Contest. This contest is sponsored in memory of Mary Collins, who was wife of Mayor Bill Collins and passed away several years ago. Her family donated money to the Chamber to sponsor the contest and an overall monetary Miss Mary prize each year. Members of Mary’s family serve as judges of the contest and her granddaughter, Andee Rettele, has been emcee for the past several years. They were assisted by members of the Chamber and Historical Society board.

Ribbons were awarded for several categories starting from infant and up through 6th grades and also for group categories. The first place of each individual category was then judged for the overall Miss Mary $100 prize — which went to Harper Brown’s sea turtle!

Outside around the courthouse square, the costumed characters and vehicles were arriving and the Hiawatha Middle School marching band could be heard warming up. By 3 p.m., the Afternoon Kiddie Parade kicked off with the Boy Scouts bringing the flags, emergency vehicles, floats, costumed characters, the HMS Band and more.

Following the parade, registration for evening floats began shortly after near the middle school and members of the Simmer and Grathwohl families began lining floats up for judging around the high school parking lot and Red Hawk Drive.

Downtown activities included a few vendors — including the favorite kettle corn and face painting — and by 5:45 p.m. the Red Hawk Marching Band, accompanied by Color Guard and the Hawkettes Dance Team, performed in front of the grand stand in the 600 block of Oregon.

This was a prelude to the crowning of the 2022 Halloween Queen, which was at 6 p.m. — sponsored by the Hiawatha Chamber and made possible by financial contributions of several local businesses.

This year’s Halloween Queen was Miss Frankfort Clara Kee, 1st Runner Up Miss Horton Carley Hammersmith and Miss Congeniality Miss Miss Hiawatha-South Brown County Courtney Cline. Rainbow Communications sponsored a $1,000 scholarship for the queen and other local businesses came together to sponsor a $500 for 1st runner-up and $250 for Miss Congeniality. The Queen Pageant was held Oct. 23 at the Memorial Auditorium and contestants were judged on an essay, talent and judge’s interview along with leadership skills, community involvement and scholastic achievements.

This year’s Grand Marshals were Jim and Barb Rupe, who were driven through the parade by Mike and Mary Patton, following the members of the American Legion Homer White Post 66 presenting the flags and Bob Sines in his WWII Jeep.

Other traditional entries in the Evening Parade included Mrs. Kreb’s flowers, driven by an antique truck from the Romine family. The flowers were sponsored by Main Street Flower Shoppe and laid on Mrs. Krebs’ grave following the festivities.

There were nearly 50 entries in this year’s Grand Evening Parade, including the Red Hawk Marching Band, and bands from Sabetha, Falls City and Troy. The bands were judged and first place went to Sabetha, Falls City took second and Hiawatha was third place in a very tight race. There were also several amazing floats and costumed characters.

The Gray’s Spirit of Halloween award for the Afternoon Kiddie Parade went to the Koerperich/Chandler families for their Hocus Pocus float and for the Grand Evening Parade went to Morrill Public Library for their Haunted Storytime float. The Grand Champion for the Grand Parade was the Sac & Fox Truck Stop & Trading Post float. Float prizes for the Grand Parade were sponsored by Freedom Hospice.

In addition to these festivities are other Halloween activities including pumpkin and poster decorating contests — sponsored by McPeak Optometry and Edward Jones, along with the Chamber contests for Haunted House, Horror Photos, Window Painting, a logo contest and next year’s theme. Rehab Visions sponsored a Shoebox Float contest.

The Hiawatha Chamber and Visitors Bureau wanted to thank the Jere Bruning and Freedom Hospice for their financial sponsorships and generosity to help make this year’s Frolic traditions possible. They also wanted to thank Rainbow Communications, Citizens State Bank and Ag Partners for sponsorships of the queen scholarships.

The town of Hiawatha is always looking ahead for future Halloween Frolics to keep the tradition of the oldest Parade in the nation in place. Next year’s theme was voted on and will be Hiawatha’s Moonlight Monsters. Happy planning for the 109th Annual Halloween Frolic!

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