Walking the Pumpkin Walk
Pumpkins aren’t just for for pies. And the city of North Logan is out to prove it.
Preparations are being made for the 23rd-annual Pumpkin Walk at Elk Ridge Park in North Logan, and it promises to be no small ordeal. Around 30,000 people attended last year to view a wide array of gourd art. The event is scheduled for Oct. 20-22 and 24-25. This year’s Pumpkin Walk, with the theme “Comedy Central,” will be even better than last year’s, according to volunteer MarLyn McKinley.
“One thing that really added to it this year is the paved path here,” said McKinley. The 11-foot-wide path is a new addition to the park, creating an actual “walk” for the Pumpkin Walk. “It made it really it nice here so that people are not walking through mud. It creates better atmosphere,” McKinley said.
The Pumpkin Walk has been around for quite a while now. Believe it or not, volunteer Sandy Ballard said it was all started by a group of deviant kids.
“Years ago Ida and Wally Beutler had a little display of pumpkins set up at their home, and some kids smashed the pumpkins, ruining the little scene,” said Ballard.
However, the Beutlers caught the pumpkin smashers and treated them to milk and cookies. Ballard said, “[The Beutlers] said as punishment, they needed to help them redo their pumpkin scene bigger and better.” The next year, the kids helped out with the Beutlers’ pumpkin display again, but this time they volunteered on their own, said Ballard.
Each following year, more kids volunteered to help, and “the Beutlers’ farm soon turned into a ‘Pumpkin Walk’ of displays made from the bounty of the harvest,” Ballard said. The “Pumpkin Walk” soon became so popular that the event became too large for the Beutler farm and had to be moved to Elk Ridge Park, where the Walk is still held today.
The Pumpkin Walk consists of 40 “scenes,” with each scene somehow tying into this year’s “Comedy Central” theme.
“We’re hitting some [scenes] with cartoons, some with movies,” said McKinley. “There will be something for everybody; for children and adults.”
McKinley predicted that one of the more popular displays will be the “Napoleon Dynamite” scene.
“LaFawnduh, Kip’s wife in “Napoleon Dynamite,” is going to have a cornstalk wedding dress and veil,” she said of the popular film’s display.
Other scenes included in this year’s Pumpkin Walk are “The Three Amigos,” “The Muppets,” “Dukes of Hazzard,” “Dumb and Dumber” and “Christmas Vacation” – all made using pumpkins.
The Pumpkin Walk has become a real community effort with volunteers numbering close to 500, said McKinley.
“We have scouts, we have institute groups, we have just individual people who want to come and work during the Pumpkin Walk. We are finding that people are volunteering from Hyrum clear through to Franklin,” she said, adding, “People are catching on. They want to help and be involved.”
The Pumpkin Walk is often a family ordeal for the volunteers. McKinley’s son Zach is helping out this year, as he has in years past.
“I liked when we did ‘Swiss Family Robinson,'” he said of a past display.
Riley Nielson, who said he has been helping out at the Pumpkin Walk since he was 2 years old, also worked on the “Swiss Family Robinson” scene.
“We got a scaffolding and we made tree houses with it. We covered it up with cornstalks and other stuff,” he said.
Dedee Dalebout, the secretary for the Pumpkin Walk committee, said her favorite part of the event is just the event going on.
“I really like watching during the Pumpkin Walk and seeing people’s faces as they go through,” Dalebout said.
Perhaps the most enjoyable aspect of the Pumpkin Walk is the playful and creative spirit.
As volunteer Janet Jeppson said, “It’s just a cool thing. I mean, how often do you get to play with squash?”
North Logan’s 23rd-annual Pumpkin Walk will be held October 20-22 and 24-25 from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. each day at Elk Ridge Park at 2500 N. 1100 East. Admission is free.
-cunningham@cc.usu.edu