Fort, 90, says he’s pulling the plug on Jan. 2, giving his last call for visitors to see the illumination up close.

As he retires the display due to his health, Fort is proud to reflect on how the annual tradition brought joy to people from hundreds of miles away and transformed him from a Christmas Scrooge to a holiday cheermeister.

“For a guy that hated Christmas for years, it changed my mind after they started showing up like they have,” he said.

Fort estimates that more than 100,000 visitors have made the trek to Dakota City, with about 15,000 each year in more recent years. One year, a total of 39 tour busses made their way to the “north star” of Humboldt County.

-Messenger photo by Chad Thompson
A lighted windmill shines red and green against a blue night sky at Merlin Fort’s Hillside Spectacular in Dakota City on Saturday evening.

What started with a single string of lights soon turned into three acres polluted by light from 54 breakers with delights constructed by Fort and a limited number of assistants over the years. About a mile of wire lays in the ground underneath it all.

“When I came home from work, there were never any lights there,” he said of his inspiration to brighten his home in his 50s.

He started with the silhouette of a tree on the house, with a mere 20 bulbs. Each year after, it grew a little bit larger. In recent years, he spent about $1,000 each year adding to the displays. The number of displays reached their peak size about five years ago.

The 90-year-old starts putting the lights up each October, after he finishes for the year with his seasonal job as the groundskeeper for Humboldt County Fairgrounds. He assembles the displays and shovels the snow on the pathways around them mostly by himself, with some help here and there.

Visitors can see spectacles like the “bear in a box,” the 60-foot-tall Dutch windmill (complete with 8,000 lights), a helicopter or airplane.

-Messenger photo by Chad Thompson
Merlin Fort, 90, of Dakota City, greets a visitor to his Hillside Spectacular Saturday. Fort, who has strung up Christmas lights all over his property for 35 years, said this is the last year for the display.

“I don’t climb (the windmill) any more,” he said, laughing. “There ain’t nothing to it when you climb up there, but when you look down it looks like you’re 10 miles in the air.”

His favorite display, the nativity scene, was made out of petrified wood.

The man with a pacemaker said he nearly died putting the displays up this year.

“The doctor told me I better not try again next year,” Fort said. “It’s up and down the hill all the time with only one helper. People can’t imagine what it’s like to put those lights up.”

Fort planned to close and auction off the lights last year, but gave it another year after numerous requests from the community to continue.

-Messenger photo by Chad Thompson
Merlin Fort’s Hillside Spectacular is just as bright from the bottom of the hill as it is the top. The display of 150,000 lights may not be turned on in 2020. Fort said this is the last year for the lights.

The effort is “quite a deal, I’ll tell you that,” he said, especially as traffic started getting heavier in recent years. This year was particularly difficult with rain and snow early in the fall, delaying the set-up.

And his effort to expand in recent years has become more difficult, too. With difficulty in finding C7 bulbs, Fort has travelled all over the state to buy out every bulb he can at Menards, the only retailer that still carries it.

Fort said the display costs about $6 per hour to keep lit, with motors running all the time from Thanksgiving to New Year’s. Displays are on for four to five hours each night.

Donation boxes on site help him break even, which is all he cares for. The owner does not charge any admission fees, keeping the holiday activity open to anyone.

Seeing the little kids light up on horse-drawn sleigh rides through the winter wonderland is what has kept him going all these years, he said.

“We get an awful lot of nickels and dimes in the box,” he chuckled, most likely from the kids wanting to contribute.

After he closes, Fort would like to find a single buyer for all the lights and displays.

Fort says you don’t have to walk the entire campus to see everything, but highly recommends at least going to the deck to get the full experience.