Fires. Tipped over outhouses. Roaming cows. This town battled pranks and changed Halloween.

In the early 1920s, pranks characterized America’s Halloween celebrations. But they were becoming increasingly destructive. In Anoka, city leaders decided something had to be done. ANOKA, MN – Anoka’s Halloween tradition began less as a celebration than an intervention. It was 1919, and the one-time …