Pony Express Museum Pumpkinfest 2024
In our 28th year, Pumpkinfest 2024 remains a free festival with special emphasis on families and children. We’ve seen some incredibly positive changes since the pandemic. We lost a significant part of our “workforce” in 2021, the first year back in person. We hit the airwaves through TV and radio asking for assistance from the community to help us carve pumpkins. The community’s response was a lifesaver. We got all the pumpkins carved and staged on Pumpkin Mountain! We continued to call upon our volunteer community in the years since. The response blows us away each year, with more individuals, groups, schools, and businesses each year hearing our request and championing our cause, making Pumpkinfest (PF) the best yet! A local business donates pumpkins each year. Community volunteers pick up these pumpkins, deliver them to schools as the Museum for gutting, carving, and decoration. A local high school group pitched in and gutted all logo pumpkins by noon of the first day – a PF record! Community volunteers then retrieve the pumpkins from the schools later in the week. These pumpkins are delivered to more volunteers who overcome the obstacles on the scaffolding that creates Pumpkin Mountain to ensure each pumpkin is properly staged. We had so many carved and decorated pumpkins from school children, we had to borrow the strings of lights illuminating the Museum to provide sufficient lights for each pumpkin! These volunteers also decorate the grounds, man the information booth, sell Halloween related items to guests at the Little Pumpkin Shop, and pitch in wherever needed. Local government contributes by setting up tents and building the scaffold. Once the “party is over” many of these community groups and volunteers stay to clean up and pack things away until next year.
It is safe to say the community considers this a beloved family tradition. While food trucks and craft vendors charge to purchase their menu items and wares, attendance and entertainment remain free of charge to all attendees. Last year we invited a local business to provide bounce-house type rides in place of the carnival. We received positive feedback on this change. Fan favorites such as the petting zoo, storytelling, magic tricks, musical entertainment, dance, balloon artist, and bull whip tricks continue to provide consistency and ensure our guests have an enjoyable time. The local fire department raises the US flag during a ceremony reflecting on our country and acknowledging our veterans. This is also a recent change that turned into a new, much-loved tradition.
Thank you in advance for your consideration of a donation to Pumpkinfest. We would be honored to carve a pumpkin with your company logo for a donation of $1,000.
