Meet the woman mapping Winnipeg's Halloween houses
CTV
Over the last decade, Carol Cassell has created maps of all the Winnipeg homes decorated for Halloween.
Ten years ago, Carol Cassell set out to create a map of the homes in her neighbourhood that were getting into the Halloween spirit.
An avid cyclist, Cassell travelled around Transcona in the fall. She’d pass by houses with elaborate decorations and spooky signage that she felt would often get missed or overlooked.
“I'm like, ‘There are amazing houses here, but nobody knows about them,’ so I created a map, and I shared it with the community, and they really enjoyed it,” Cassell said. “So I just kept doing it.”
Cassell continued her cartography through the pandemic, expanding the boundaries to encompass all of Winnipeg.
“There are a lot of people who are really excited about being able to go around and look at all these great decorated homes, people who are enthusiastic about Halloween,” she said.
To help spread the word about the homes and their locations, Cassell created a Facebook group called, “Winnipeg Halloween Map.” Over the last decade, the Facebook group has grown to more than 26,000 members, with nearly 1,000 new people joining just this week.
Cassell said she starts with a blank map every year around mid-September and adds houses accordingly, based on submissions by group members and homeowners.
