Fun without the Fear Factor
Where else can you find Shrek, Woody and the three little kittens but at The Great Pumpkin Adventure?
This year marks the 19th annual Pumpkin Walk since the first one at Wally and Ida Beutler’s farm. North Logan took over the tradition in the early ’90s when it got to be too big for the Beutlers, said Mary Ellen McKenna, co-chairman of the Pumpkin Walk.
“The Beutlers started it up on their farm. They just wanted to have a wholesome Halloween activity for their neighbors and grandchildren,” she said. “Ida baked cookies and made hot chocolate and apple cider, and it was just fun.”
Pepperidge Farm now donates the cookies, about one ton per year, which are handed out by volunteers.
Ayrel Jensen, an undeclared freshman, is one of the volunteers passing out cookies this year.
“I love the whole atmosphere,” she said. “Everyone is so happy. It’s something unique to Logan. Where I come from, they don’t have anything like this. I love how Halloween is so big here.”
This year’s theme is “Tell Me a Story,” and there are 54 separate scenes and about 900 carved pumpkins in the walk, McKenna said. The scenes range from miniature ones inside one pumpkin, such as Harry Potter under the stairs, to larger ones, like scenes from the book “Where the Wild Things Are.”
The Pumpkin Walk is free, and everyone involved with it is a volunteer – from the people who grow and donate the pumpkins to those who set them up. One family donates 2,000 to 3,000 pumpkins per year for the walk, McKenna said.
“They are all volunteers,” McKenna said. “People do it because they want to be part of something fun and special.”
Those who participate range from school groups to Macey’s employees. Laura Swift, a member of the USS Rendezvous Science Fiction Club, helped build a scene out of miniature pumpkins that portrays the fake news broadcast from Oct. 30, 1938 that sent the country into a panic.
“People tuned in to the broadcast in the middle and didn’t hear the first 10 seconds that said, ‘Orson Wells dramatization,'” she said. “Every city had traffic jams because people thought Mars had really attacked. We thought it would be fun to act out one of the scenes with pumpkins.”
The club has been participating in the Pumpkin Walk for five years.
School children from Ogden to Preston become involved by making scenes for display and by coming to see the walk during school. And nothing seems to keep people away, even bad weather, McKenna said.
“We have school children constantly,” she said. “And it doesn’t matter whether it’s raining, snowing, the wind is blowing or it’s bitterly cold. The people come.
“There’s something almost magical there. You walk around and just feel good. That’s why some of us do it every year. For somebody, we’re making the happiest place in the world,” she said.
Thirteen-year-old Emily Haslem participates in a different way than most school children. She sits on a hay bail, wears a pumpkin on her head and scares passers-by.
“People think my legs are real, so they’re like, ‘go touch it,'” she said. “The worst part is that it gets cold. It hailed, so the hay got all wet and my mom had to bring me something to sit on.”
Margaret Archibald has been coming to the Pumpkin Walk since it was first created.
“My favorite part is the creativity,” she said. “It’s wonderful to see the community and schools and everyone who participates every year. It’s unique, and I like that it is different every year. It’s fun to see what people will come up with.”
Joy Ockerman from Idaho Falls visited the Pumpkin Walk for the first time this year and said she was very impressed by it.
“It’s amazing that there are so many people involved and volunteering their time,” she said. “This is a really neat experience.”
People come quite a distance to visit the Pumpkin Walk – including from Idaho, Wyoming, Arizona and Nevada – and some plan their vacations around it, McKenna said.
“For some of us, it just gets into your blood,” she said. “People keep coming back because it’s wholesome, fun and creative. It has become a tradition, something that’s unique.”
The Pumpkin Walk is open through Halloween from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. and is located at North Logan City Park, about 1100 East and 2500 North. Every year, it runs on Halloween and the three days prior to it, except Sundays.
For more information on the Pumpkin Walk, visit its Web site at www.pumpkinwalk.com. For information about volunteering, contact North Logan City.
-kcartwright@cc.usu.edu
Eeyore from Disney´s “Winnie the Pooh” is portrayed.
The entrance of the Pumpkin Walk welcomes visitors.
An Aggie A shines brightly around the walkway of the Pumpkin Walk. (Photos by John Zsiray)