The tunnel of lights is a popular part of the route , often found at the end . Sieren says some people drive through slowly , some stop and take pictures and some travel through fast to get different effects from the light patterns . Courier file photo
As luck — for Ottumwa — would have it , another town was discontinuing its display and those lights were available for Ottumwa to use . “ That ’ s how the whole concept got developed — almost by accident ,” Uehling said . The committee was formed to help better Ottumwa “ and it just morphed into this very quickly . It usually takes a lot more time to get something like this together .”
The event had 108 sponsors the first year , he said . “ It was received very well and it just kind of went from there .”
The chamber , now part of Greater Ottumwa Partners in Progress , got involved as a contact point for the project . Eventually , they took the project over from the volunteer committee .
It has expanded from there . A Santa house was added to the route , and the trails council began doing a walk-through fundraiser before the official opening night . This year ’ s walk is set for Friday , Nov . 20 .
In recent years , select weekends have seen an ice skating rink set up for the public to enjoy as they travel through the lights . However , due to the COVID-19 pandemic , Santa ’ s house and the ice skating rink will not be available . “ It ’ s sad that we can ’ t have Santa there , but we want to keep everyone safe ,” said Brenda Sieren , program coordinator for GOPIP .
But the lights will still provide magic for those visiting the one-mile route of more than 50 displays , totaling 500,000 illuminating lights .
“ I think it ’ s just become a family tradition . It gets you out of the house , especially at this time ,” said Sieren .
For some , the tradition begins at setup time , usually mid-October . Morris Frisbee has been volunteering for more than 10 years , helping get the display set up , with his expertise being in electronics . Getting all the displays lit , he said , “ is quite a job . You have to make sure you ’ re not going to burn out extension cords .” ( Nearly 500 of them are used to light the park .)
“ We try to lay them out in the shelter house and check to all the bulbs and make sure they ’ re working and make sure all the pieces are there to lay them out and assemble them ,” he said .
“ I had retired from working at Indian Hills teaching electronics ,” Frisbee said . He also did that type of work when he served in the Air Force . “ I decided to go down one year and enjoyed it .
Frisbee keeps track of the displays with a chart of each one , their size , amperage , how many pieces there are and if they use sequencers or other controllers . He also has a map of the park , marking where each display was going to go . “ I usually put in about 90 hours per year just putting it up ,” he said . “ Every year we try to change about three or four displays . We get new displays . We move them around to look like a new display [ each year ]”
As the displays have been changed out over the years , a transition has been made from incandescent lights to more efficient LED lights .
This year will see some new snowflake arches , Sieren said , and the displays will be rearranged . “ You ’ ve got to change it up sometimes to have some new things here ,” she said . “ We still have our 35-foot yeti that we ’ ll have this year with the pink Christmas tree ,” she said , which was new last year .
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