KENOVA, W.Va. - It started innocently enough: Ric Griffith carved a few pumpkins to fill his porch and teach his daughters about Halloween.
As his children grew, so did the project.
Twenty-four years and 14,226 pumpkins later, Griffith's annual Halloween display of carved jack-o-lanterns has reached a new plateau. This year, 2,624 pumpkins will create a lighting display that can be seen across the Ohio River.
"It has a magical effect on people," says Griffith, a pharmacist and president of Kenova's City Council. "The response both amazes and amuses me."
He expects more than 10,000 visitors to flock to Kenova, a town of 3,485 on the Ohio River, to visit the house. On Halloween, a police officer directs traffic along his street.
What began with four pumpkins was up to 12 in 1979 and swelled to 800 by 1997 during what Griffith calls his "days of minimal insanity."
"Because of people's reaction, it jumped into an obsessive-compulsive disorder."
Griffith has spent $1,000 to wire his front lawn with electrical outlets; only about 20 pumpkins are lit with candles. Eventually, he would like to move the display to the former Ceredo-Kenova High School and get the whole town involved.
"This is crazy," Griffith said. "But it's one of the prices of my lunacy."
