On the morning after Halloween in 1919, early risers in Anoka, Minnesota, discovered something unusual.

Cows had taken over the town. Bovine peered into store windows, munched flowers from window boxes, and strolled up Main Street. Two bawled in the city jail, and another napped in the sheriff’s office. One even ate her way through textbooks and a globe at the local high school.

The stampede was a prank by the town’s teenagers, but instead of cracking down, residents tried something new. The next fall, Anoka threw what an October 1952 issue of Ford Times called the first known community Halloween celebration — with a costume parade, spooky window displays, games, and treats to keep young pranksters occupied.

The idea caught on. By 1952, the whole town was turning out for the festivities, and communities across the country were dreaming up their own ways to trade mischief for merriment. More than 70 years later, Anoka still proudly calls itself the Halloween Capital of the World. And as the Ford Times article puts it, “every cow in the county can count on a good night’s sleep.”

Read the story via the Ford Times archive, October 1952. Browse more at FordHeritageVault.com.