In 2017, Nate Taylor found a three-word offer on Craigslist for free Halloween decorations. It took three truck trips to bring everything home. Nearly a decade later, that secondhand collection has become a local attraction that drew an estimated 18,000 visitors last October and led to a legal dispute with city officials in Michigan. Taylor, a 49-year-old part-time DJ and stay-at-home father, spends weeks setting up detailed Halloween displays outside his Cape Cod-style home near Kid’s Creek Park in Traverse City. Known as Dead Ends on Spruce, the annual attraction features 25 moving Halloween figures, called animatronics, ranging from 6 to 12 feet tall. They include a 7-foot werewolf and a 12-foot headless horseman. The display also uses 40 speakers to play sounds of rain and thunder, along with a custom fog system that runs through 400 feet of trenches in the yard.
Origins and focus on accessibility
The display began when Taylor answered a classified ad from a local resident who was downsizing after a divorce and giving away 20 years’ worth of holiday decorations. “Really, ma’am? You want us to take this?” Taylor recalled asking in an interview published by Realtor.com. After bringing the decorations home, Taylor tied a tarp to a large tree branch in his 40-foot-wide yard to protect items that were not made to withstand the weather. Over the years, he added more covered areas, built a graveyard with headstones, and began running the lights and sound systems throughout the evening. Taylor created the attraction to give families and children with special needs a safe place to enjoy Halloween for free. As the father of two children on the autism spectrum, he said that options for neurodivergent children and young people during the autumn holiday season are often limited in the region. “I’m not into blood and gore or jump scares,” Taylor told Realtor.com. He added that his goal was to create an event that is “easily accessible and free” to the local special needs community. “We have never charged a dime, not one, for any ticket,” he added.
Municipal letters and legal disputes
By 2024, support from neighbors had helped create a social media page for the property. The attraction drew an estimated 18,000 visitors and six school groups during October. Taylor took a break in 2025 to care for family members, including his mother while she received treatment for colon cancer. When he prepared to reopen in August 2026, Taylor met with local fire marshals and the city manager responsible for enforcing local rules. He asked the city to close the street each Halloween night to improve safety. After one neighbor complained that Taylor was running a commercial business by selling admission tickets, the city sent him a four-page legal letter explaining local rules for businesses run from homes. One restriction limited the property to no more than eight car trip ends at any given time. “They think I am a business,” Taylor told Realtor.com. “I am not.” Realtor.com reported that city officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the enforcement action. Taylor argued that the city had acted on an unverified tip. He said that when visitor numbers were spread across 30 days, the traffic was similar to that of a large garage sale and did not block neighbors’ driveways. To pay for the display after taking a year off, Taylor accepted about $400 in online contributions through Venmo and sold some of his personal DJ equipment. He maintained that visitors could still enter the yard entirely for free.
Continued operations and community response
After three attorneys offered to represent him for free, Taylor’s legal team sent a formal letter asking city officials to explain their plans for enforcing the rules by September 18. “We never heard back,” Taylor said. After receiving no further response from local officials, Dead Ends on Spruce opened as planned for the October season. Taylor said about 400 people attended opening night, and 25 special needs groups had booked visits throughout the month. “We haven’t had one city official come,” Taylor told Realtor.com. “It has been absolutely successful.” Taylor expects the total number of visitors to reach nearly 25,000 by the end of the season.
