Booth decorating starts at 3:00 this afternoon along the trail at Hickman Main Park. There's no electricity out there, so vendors who want lights bring their own generators. Golf cars and small utility vehicles are allowed on the trail for setup and cleanup. Street vehicles are not. At 6:00 the families arrive, and for two hours the trail near Buchanan Field fills with costumes and candy.
The 19th annual Trick or Treat on the Trail is also a fundraiser. The Hickman Area Economic Development Association, known as HAEDA, gives the event's net proceeds to the City of Hickman to buy and install trail lights and to pay for other improvements on city-owned trails. When you pay the $2 to get in tonight, that money goes toward lighting the same trails you walk the rest of the year. You can see the results on tonight's route.
Where the $2 Goes
The city's Trick or Treat on the Trail page has the link for the 2026 participation donation, which is $2. Pay it online and save the receipt, because you'll need it to get onto the trail. The same page also takes larger gifts to what it calls the Trail Lighting & Improvement campaign.
The rest of the money comes from businesses. Booths cost $45 or $65, depending on where they sit on the route. Businesses that can't staff a booth can buy a recognition sponsorship instead, which puts their name or logo on event advertising and lets them add a flyer to the children's treat bags.
The family price hasn't changed in at least four years:
| Year | Edition | Family entry | Booth fee | Where the money was pointed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 15th annual | $2 donation | $45 | City trail-lighting projects |
| 2023 | 16th annual | Not listed on the vendor form | $45 | Hickman trail-lighting projects |
| 2026 | 19th annual | $2 donation | $45 or $65 | Lighting and improvements on Hickman's hiking and biking trails |
The goal has stayed the same the whole time, and the $2 entry is the same as it was in 2022. What changed is the booth pricing. Two of the five sections, Candy Corner and Pumpkin Path, now cost $65.
Haunted Hollow Already Shows the Payoff
This year's route has five booth sections, and HAEDA's 2026 letter to vendors says every booth is non-frightening:
- Candy Corner, $65
- Haunted Hollow, $45
- Monster Midway, $45
- Scarecrow Fields, $45
- Pumpkin Path, $65
Next to the Haunted Hollow listing, the letter adds a note: "New trail lighting added thanks to past vendors and participants!" So tonight's route runs past lights that earlier years of this event paid for. Families walking through Haunted Hollow are using lights bought with past entry fees while paying toward the next ones.
The 2026 vendor letter also says the event is in the same place as last year with a longer route. It starts at Hickman Main Park, also called City Park, at 100 Main Street, with the trail beginning near Buchanan Field. A longer route has room for more booths along the trail.
The Event Was Part of Hickman's Trail Plan From the Start
This fundraiser has been tied to Hickman's trails from the beginning. When the city updated its Trail Master Plan in June 2017, the plan's first public outreach took place at Trick or Treat on the Trail. The plan describes the event as one the city held every year to raise money for trails. In other words, the city went to the trail event to ask families where they wanted new trails.
That plan proposed segments with names like Hickman Road East, Scott's Creek, Harlan Reservoir, Water Tower, Baylor Heights, the Prairie View–Terrace View Connector and the Hickman Road–Wagon Train Road Connector. It also sketched regional links toward Homestead, Wagon Train, Stagecoach and Norris. The plan was a list of proposals, not a promise to build each one. The city's trails page describes Hickman Road East as a 10-foot concrete trail along Hickman Road that connects to an existing trail on its east end and runs to the city's west edge.
From fall through early spring, an after-dinner walk on a trail like that happens after dark. The Halloween money pays for the lights.
Who Turns Out
In its sponsor pitch, HAEDA estimates that the event draws more than 1,400 children, along with parents and grandparents, from across the Norris School District and nearby communities. That figure is HAEDA's own estimate from its letter to sponsors, not a count from any one year. HAEDA's planning matches it, though. Recognition sponsors were asked to deliver 1,600 flyer copies to City Hall by October 16 for this year's treat bags. So organizers are packing for about 1,600 kids.
That turnout is why a $2 donation adds up. HAEDA doesn't publish yearly totals, but the event has been raising money for Hickman's trails for 19 years.
Tonight, Start to Finish
- Before you leave the house: Pay the $2 participation donation through the city's event page and keep the receipt for trail entry.
- 3:00 p.m.: Vendors begin decorating booths along the trail.
- Before 6:00 p.m.: Vendors email booth photos to HAEDA for the Best Decorated Booth contest. Booths without a submitted photo aren't entered.
- 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.: The trail opens at Hickman Main Park, 100 Main Street, starting near Buchanan Field.
- On the way through: Look for the new lights in Haunted Hollow. Past entry fees paid for them.
The Hickman City Council's October 13 agenda listed the event under council correspondence with the same date, time and Main Park location.
Lit Pickleball Courts Are Coming to Terrace View
A pickleball park with its own lighting is under construction in the Terrace View neighborhood at 839 Titan Drive. The city awarded the Phase One bid to Rogge General Contractors in October 2025. Phase One covers off-street parking, underground utilities, a sidewalk and trail, grading and seeding, pickleball courts, and lighting for the courts. The park is paid for differently from the trail lights. The city says it is using Local Option Sales Tax funds instead of event proceeds.
Don't count on playing there next week. In its September 2026 update, the city said the contractor expected Phase One to be done by the end of October 2026. Then the October 13 council agenda included a change order to push back the project's substantial and final completion dates because of weather delays. The new dates haven't been posted. The same agenda included two payment certificates to Rogge, $114,918.65 for work through July 31 and $89,475.75 for work through August 31.
Phase Two is in the city's 2026–2027 budget and may include more trail connections, parking, playground equipment and landscaping. If those trail connections get built, Terrace View joins the same trail network that tonight's entry fees help light. The 2017 plan already proposed a Prairie View–Terrace View Connector and a Terrace View Park Link.
Charlie and Trista have spent their careers around construction, so they notice details like a lit trail or a sidewalk that will connect two parts of town later. If you want to talk about how Hickman's trails and parks are taking shape, or what a lot near them could support, The Home Team is happy to walk it with you. Schedule a free consultation with The Home Team.
