Though Halloween isn’t technically until next Tuesday, this weekend offers plenty of opportunities for Eugeneans to get into the holiday spirit early. If past experience is any indication, the next few days could prove to be exciting, as Halloween weekend is typically an eventful, sometimes volatile local holiday. Here are some newsmakers from past Halloweens in the campus community.
1981
The Emerald takes a tour of the supposedly haunted Heceta House, a lighthouse keeper’s former house that stands on a remote cliff on the Oregon coast. The house was built in 1893, but was abandoned 1940 after the use of electricity eliminated the need for a lighthouse keeper.
The two caretakers of the home claim it is inhabited by the ghost of the woman who used to live there. With the use of a Ouija board, the two determined the woman’s name was “Rue.”
1996
The Emerald reports that a small Halloween party on University Street gets out of hand when an unruly crowd of more than 200 people begin hurling “bottles, rocks and insults” at police officers when they arrive at the house to break the party up.
Police say the crowd, which was mostly intoxicated, was unhappy because the host of the party couldn’t hold everyone and didn’t let all of the partygoers in. One patrol car is damaged in the altercation, which requires police to call reinforcements to eventually disperse the mob.
1998
A riot of between 80 and 100 people breaks out on Alder Street, resulting in Eugene Police and SWAT team intervention and a total of 12 arrests, the Emerald reports. Witnesses and police observe the hostile crowd pulling signs from the ground and hurling bottles at police. When the crowd resists the initial push by authorities to contain the incident, officers in riot gear use tear gas to eventually gain control of the area at about 1:30 a.m.