The Pumpkin Walk: A Timeless Tradition
After 20 years, there’s only one thing to say: Veggie Tales … eat your heart out.
Every year since 1982, at the end of October, clubs and organizations have been turning pumpkins, squash and other garden vegetables into the funniest, cutest, and most creative displays this side of the Little Bear River. Twenty years is a long time to do anything, but when it’s a tradition like the North Logan Pumpkin Walk, 20 years isn’t nearly enough.
This year, possibly 70,000 people are expected to attend. The activity started as a simple and fun activity for neighborhood children to enjoy on Halloween held on the old Beutler farm in North Logan.
“Halloween has taken on a satanic theme,” said Mary McKenna, who with her husband Rob, chairs the Pumpkin Walk committee. “The Pumpkin Walk is here to provide a fun place for families to go at no cost that doesn’t have any evil or scary connotations.”
With the draw of Ida Beutler’s homemade cookies and hot drinks, about 200 people attended the walk that first year. But it was such a big hit (and word spread so fast), that during the next year, attendance jumped to around 2,000 attendees.
“The Beutlers took their apple crop and had them pressed into cider for Ida, in her gracious manner, to serve to visitors,” said North Logan resident Nancy Israelson.
With the help of enlisted friends and neighbors, it grew from there. There was one year when it was just too much for the Beutlers to do, so it was canceled. The problem was that the Pumpkin Walk had become so loved – it left a void in the Halloween fun – so the next year the city of North Logan asked to help carry on the tradition. Today the Pumpkin Walk is more popular than ever.
With past and current scenes including recreations from “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “ET,” “Pete’s Dragon,” “Jurassic Park,” Martha Stewart, the Utah Jazz, “Alice in Wonderland,” “Pinocchio,” “Shrek,” the Haunted Forest, “Darby O’Gill and the Little People,” “Star Wars,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “Cinderella,” “Aliens,” and even a recreation of a backyard picnic, the word on the street is that the walk is just a lot of good, clean fun.
“The purpose of the Pumpkin Walk is to have fun!” McKenna said. “It is a fun way to celebrate Halloween. With the cost being zilch, nada, nothing, i.e., free! Anyone can come.”
Although amusement may be its purpose, setting up an event like the Pumpkin Walk is no walk in the park. As the McKenna’s, who have been in charge of the Pumpkin Walk for the past eight years will tell you, there’s plenty to do: Deciding on the theme for the year; contacting people to grow the pumpkins (between 2,000 to 3,000 every year); getting straw and corn stalks; advertising, painting new scener;, getting scene makers and cookies to pass out; finding volunteers to pick, paint; and carve pumpkins; traffic control; parking, helping with all aspects of setting up the displays and taking it all down are just a part of everything that creates the magic thousands of families have come to expect.
“Though I’ve never sat and counted, the number of volunteers must be in the hundreds,” McKenna said. “You have the growers, those who set up, clean up, do traffic, parking, make the cookies at Pepperidge Farms, scene makers, carvers, electricians, hospitality persons, cookie passer outers, pumpkin lighters, and many more.”
USU students attend the Pumpkin Walk, too.
“I’ve been to the Pumpkin Walk before,” said Brad Hansen, a senior majoring in communicative disorders. “It’s just a really cool place with lots of pumpkins. I really enjoyed how they put it all together and give you free cookies as well. It’s a great event to participate in. I actually helped light the candles one year. It’s really a friendly place for the community and a great thing for North Logan.”
Krista Marshall, a senior majoring in business information systems, said, “From past experience, [the Pumpkin Walk] was really fun. It was great to see all the different creative pumpkins that people had thought of to make, and it was just a good time to go and spend with friends.”
Mike Macintyre, a junior majoring in biology, said he’s been to the Pumpkin Walk with his family several times.
“I always remember going as a little kid. It was one of my favorite things to do around Halloween because I got to see all the ‘Simpsons’ like pumpkins and I thought that was the best. Even now, it’s still fun to go and be with family and friends. It’s a good environment, just a really happy place to be.”
Danielle London, a senior majoring in public relations, said the Pumpkin Walk was really fun.
“I think this is by far the coolest service activity I’ve ever been to. I really feel like I’m getting involved and making a difference in the life of a pumpkin.”
And when it comes down to it, making a difference (in the lives of people and pumpkins) is what the Pumpkin Walk is all about.
“The Pumpkin Walk is a creative outlet for a lot of people,” McKenna said. “Since everything is volunteer, you have a sense of pride in doing something that makes a difference in someone’s life. It is a feel-good, warm, fuzzy feeling. It is hard to explain, but it’s a real feeling that keeps us doing it year after year.”
After the Pumpkin Walk is over there’s a lot of clean-up.
“We try not to waste anything,” McKenna said. “We recycle year to year.”
Farmers come and take the straw to use on their farms, and the pumpkins are smashed and used for pig feed. The Pumpkin Walk committee asks those who paint pumpkins to use paint without lead or other harmful chemicals, so that the pigs and other animals that eat the smashed pumpkins won’t be harmed. Many of the scene props will be saved for next year.
Monday was the last night the Pumpkin Walk was in operation. Watch for its 21st year next October.
-mattgo@cc.usu.edu
The cache childrens choir put together a display for the Pumpkin Walk featuring individual pumpkins for for choir members. (Photo by John Zsiray)
The Cat in the hat display was in the fantasy land section of the Pumpkin Walk. (Photo by John Zsiray)