Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By Ayanna Eckblad

A community favorite activity will return to the Freeborn County Historical Museum, Library & Village this week.

The museum’s third annual Creepy Doll Scavenger Hunt will be from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Friday at the museum. This will be a free event and is open to all.

Museum Executive Director Stephanie Kibler said the scavenger hunt began three years ago and took inspiration from the History Center of Olmsted County, who held a similar event. Olmsted County’s creepy doll scavenger hunt has since evolved into a cocktail party, but Freeborn County’s event is staying true to the original scavenger hunt format.

Kibler said the event is a fun way to display the museum’s doll collection. Museums, she said, can get a bad reputation for being purely educational. Although not necessarily a bad thing, it is still fun to host events like the Creepy Doll Scavenger Hunt, where people could be a little scared while also having a good time.

“[It’s] one fun, silly way to celebrate Halloween,” she said.

Kibler estimated that 1,500 people went through the Creepy Doll Scavenger Hunt the first year. Turnout was good the second year as well.

“It was really fun to see that excitement, and we’ve just kept that going, more out of fun than out of the history of it,” Kibler said.

Many of the dolls were donated to the museum when the Story Lady Doll and Toy Museum closed its doors in 2010.

Some of the dolls were donated by individuals specifically after attending the Creepy Doll Scavenger Hunt.

“They wanted to get their creepy dolls out of their house,” Kibler joked.

Some of the dolls in the collection have unknown origins and no documented paperwork. These are made into “hands-on dolls,” which can be altered by museum staff to be extra spooky for the scavenger hunt.

One such doll is Hug-Me Hannah. According to the museum’s Facebook page, “Hannah’s love for hugging was unmatched, but unfortunately, her refusal to respect personal space and hygiene led to dire consequences. People started falling sick after receiving her hugs. The town was left with no choice but to quarantine her. Her cries for affection echoed throughout the woods until her last breath.”

Seven dolls with similarly spooky backstories are on the museum’s Facebook page for people to view prior to the scavenger hunt. These backstories were created by museum staff, and Kibler said it was a fun change of pace from their normal work of recording factual events.

Kibler also said the reception for these stories has been exciting as she has gotten a lot of feedback, both through social media and in person, that people enjoy it.

The dolls will be set up in different scenes during the scavenger hunt and displayed in different, unsettling ways. Staff try to come up with original and creepy settings to put the dolls in every year. Curator of collections and exhibits, Risha Lilienthal, said this is her favorite part of the event.

One year, she said, they hung a doll upside down along with meat processing tools.

Both Kibler and Lilienthal said they try to keep gore out of the picture during the scavenger hunt but, rather, focus on scenes that are generally unnerving.

Oftentimes, making a doll look creepy or unsettling is not difficult. Age, various stages of deterioration and other factors can make the dolls frightening to be around even when it is not Halloween.

“Before we did the scavenger hunt, we would have little kids that would refuse to go up to the cases,” Kibler said. “Little kids … would have this visceral response to seeing an old doll.”

Lights will be turned off at the museum during the scavenger hunt so guests will have to look for the dolls by flashlight. The museum will provide flashlights for guests to borrow, but people are also invited to bring their own flashlights or use the lights from their phones.

The Creepy Doll Scavenger Hunt will be one of the museum’s last events of the year before they rebrand and reopen in January.

More information on the scavenger hunt and other programming at the museum can be found by going to the museum Facebook page at facebook.com/historycenterfreeborncounty.