Yert the Yeti Makes City Hall Home for Holidays

Yeti, Santa, Christmas, and Yert. All these things fill the Sparta City Hall windows this holiday season.

Writer and comedian Torry Martin said he agreed to decorate the windows as part of his “Season of Yes.”

Torry Martin shows off the newly painted building in honor of Yert the Yeti. (Photo: Torry Martin)

“I wanted to do a six month season of yes and just challenge myself to do things I have always been afraid to do, or I wasn’t sure I could do, or even wanted to do,” Martin said. “And I have been saying yes to every invitation that had good moral surroundings on it.”

Martin said he began the “Season of Yes” after he finished writing his book Call of the Mild.  Martin said he’s had strangers call him and invite him to do everything from gut a boar to canoe at midnight.

The Christmas display contains Martin’s collection of Christmas decorations. As a former Alaskan resident, Martin said he couldn’t afford Christmas until after it passed each year.

“So every year after Christmas, as soon as it went 75 percent off, I’d start getting these ornaments, thinking one day I am going to have a tree of my own,” Martin said. “And I’m gonna have a big tree and I want to have a house and I want to have people over and I want to have that. You know I want to experience that and share it with others.”

Martin said he wanted to give back to Sparta by helping beautify it. The Sparta City has approved Martin adding lighting to the Lester Flatt Guitar, the gazebo, and decorating the windows.

“To work on this I slept 6 nights in this warehouse with no heat and no lights,” Martin said. “Working with a flashlight and a shop light to set this stuff up.”

In total, Martin said its taken 2 and a half weeks, 250 hours, and 17 trips in his car to complete the windows. The windows tell the story of Yert the Yeti.

“And so it all turned into what it is now and it is a brand new children’s story called ‘Yert the Yeti: Santa’s Big Helper,'” Martin said. “And what inspired him is all the Bigfoot sightings that have been happening in Sparta and Spencer.”

Martin said he resonates with Yert the Yeti.

The last window will showcase Yert the Yeti. (Photo: Tess Simpson)

“When I was in Alaska, I lived on 8o acres and I was a hermit. And I am still very much a hermit. I have lived in Sparta for 12 years and I never knew anybody downtown Sparta,” Martin said. “And I decided I was going to get involved in my community and actually meet people. In a lot of ways, I am like Yert the Yeti. I am just hiding in the wilderness and coming out intermittently to get food at Wal-mart.”

The display contains over 2,000 ornaments, over 72 feet of moose dropping garland, and ornaments from the real North Pole. Martin personally crafted the garland in Alaska.

“They are all strung up, but I neglected to tell the mayor that I was going to add that element,” Martin said. “But it’s too late now.”

Overall, Martin said he is happy how much support the windows have received from the community.

“And it’s just crazy,” Martin said. “It’s like an ADHD Christmas extravaganza.”

The window display will take place through Monday, December 24.