FAIRFIELD — A shrieking dinosaur skeleton, a grim reaper, cobwebs, spiders and a black crow with green eyes perched on top of a skull.
These and other spooky things that talk, laugh, screech and taunt are sitting among the displays of stuffed birds, animals, fish and other creatures this week at the L.C. Bates Museum at Good Will-Hinckley, off U.S. Route 201.
“Do you dare come closer?” the crow teases as one walks through the museum’s front door.
Connor Veilleux, 15, of Winslow, checks out a conch shell Sunday at the L. C. Bates Museum in Hinckley, where a Halloween skull is placed just under a blue marlin that author Ernest Hemingway caught. Morning Sentinel photo by: Amy Calder
The Halloween displays are courtesy of Robin Duperry, of Fairfield, said Deborah Staber, the museum’s director and curator.
During a tour of the museum Sunday, Staber said 11 volunteers helped to arrange the items, which may be viewed from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week. The museum is closed Monday.
There are ghosts, a witch teaching a student sitting at an old-fashioned desk, a skeleton playing a harmonica and a bat with large wings. Many of the items move, make spooky noises and speak when one points a flashlight at them or merely passes by.
“The kids like this one the best,” Staber said, pointing to a skeleton singing into a microphone and dancing.
A natural history and cultural museum, L.C. Bates is in an old brick school building that was transformed into a museum in the early 1920s. Stuffed and preserved mammals, reptiles, birds, rocks, minerals and marine life are among the permanent display items.
Admission to the museum is $3 for adults and $1 for children younger than 18, although no one is turned away who cannot pay.
Duperry has been collecting Halloween items for years, and brings them to the museum every year for the display, according to Staber.
On Friday, 300 adults and children visited the museum, she said, as she walked along the creaky wood floors.
“Adults come, too, without kids,” she said, “and there are some bus loads coming up from Portland on Halloween.”
A skeleton “student” is part of the Halloween display at the L.C. Bates Museum in Hinkley. Morning Sentinel photo by Amy Calder
Staber, who has been at the museum 26 years, pointed to a huge blue marlin that Ernest Hemingway caught. The museum got a grant to do some fish-preservation projects, she said.
“Zane Grey caught that fish over there,” she said, pointing to another large fish on the wall.
Connor Veilleux, 15, and his mother, Jill, of Winslow, came in out of a cold rain Sunday to visit the museum, a favorite place for Connor when he was younger.
A sophomore at Winslow High School who hopes to study marine biology in college, he said he loves the museum and recommends it to anyone who has not been visited. He also recommends people come to see the Halloween displays.
“I think they’re awesome,” he said.
After scanning the museum, his mother added, “You wouldn’t want to be trapped in here at night by yourself, though.”
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