Carved selections of the good ol’ days

Elvis, The Brady Bunch, John Wayne and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, now “Those were the days.”

Twenty-four years ago, the Beutler family, from North Logan, started a tradition that took pumpkins and other vegetables and turned them into scenes and decorations for people to enjoy. The North Logan Pumpkin Walk has changed in the last 24 years from something 200 people who knew the Beutlers got to enjoy to something 50,000 people a year from all over come to see.

“Those were the days” is the theme for this year’s Pumpkin Walk, with planned scenes including, Sesame Street, Thomas the Tank Engine, The Beatles and Garfield. And as always, the pumpkins with detailed carvings are shown, Gina Worthen, member on the board for the pumpkin walk and scene creator, said.

“This year’s pumpkin walk is going to be amazing,” Worthen said. “We have an entire old west town, a ’60s scene with a drive-in and cool carved pumpkins that are intricate and fantastic.”

Worthen said, in the early days of the pumpkin walk, it was held on the Beutler farm and started when some students smashed pumpkins and Ida Beutler asked the students to come back and carve pumpkins to replace them.

“They wanted something fun to do for Halloween,” Worthen said. “They had college students smash pumpkins and Ida asked them to come carve pumpkins to help out. She would also ask the people in her (church) ward to come and help.”

When the Pumpkin Walk became too well known to be held on the farm anymore, it was moved to the park so more people could come and enjoy it, Worthen said.

The scenes for the pumpkin walk come from people and organizations throughout the valley, Worthen said. Anyone who wants to make a scene for the pumpkin walk can, she said.

“It is not really organized who does scenes,” Worthen said. “We just try to talk people into it, which is not hard to do. It is addicting to make these scenes.”

Every scene maker is allowed to come up with their own idea for their scenes and there is no age limit as to who can participate, Worthen said.

“Our youngest scene maker, who is making the scene all by themselves, is 15, and our oldest is 80, and she has been doing it since the beginning,” Worthen said.

The pumpkin walk is designed for both kids and adults to enjoy, Worthen said.

Amy, 4-year-old visitor to the pumpkin walk, said visiting the Pumpkin Walk is one of her favorite things to do at Halloween time.

“The Pumpkin Walk is very very super fun,” Amy said. “This year they had a Thomas train and they even had a real live witch to get your picture taken with, she was very nice.”

Amy said she thinks the Pumpkin Walk was made especially for kids because it is not scary but it still is full of the Halloween spirit.

“There are no real ghosts so it is not scary and the kids get to see big adult pumpkins and little tiny baby pumpkins, like them,” Amy said.

Some of the scenes from past pumpkin walks have included Singin’ in the Rain, which actually had a sprinkler that rained on the display, Back to the Future with a real Delorian, and Pumpkin Idol, which was a spin off of “American Idol,” said Worthen.

“There are usually some really funny scenes, sometimes including a political one,” Worthen said. “One of the funniest is when somebody did the front of Martha Stewart’s magazine that showed her in jail with a decorated potty.”

This year’s pumpkin walk is running at Elk Ridge Park in North Logan, Oct 18 through Oct 23, from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., except on Sunday. The event is wheelchair accessible and is free to the public.

For more information, visit www.pumpkinwalk.com.

-debrajoy.h@aggiemail.usu.edu

Pumpkin OOMPa-LOOMPAS are shown on a display at the Pumpkin Walk.