State Fair pumpkin weigh-off a bust

PALMER — The 10^th annual Midnight Sun Great Pumpkin Weigh-Off at the Alaska State Fair this year was a total bust.

Anchorage resident Dale Marshall, the lone participant in the competition, had planned to submit his biggest pumpkin — estimated at 1,300 pounds — but the gourd didn’t quite make it. In transport Tuesday morning, Marshall’s prize pumpkin broke through one of the support straps attached to the rising crane and fell to the ground.

“One second it was up here, and the next it was down here,” Marshall told the crowd, drawing a path from above his head to below his knees with his hand.

The strap that broke was supposed to be able to sustain thousands of pounds, Marshall said, but for some reason it didn’t hold up. The pumpkin — nicknamed “Humpty Dumpty,” while sitting in Marshall’s garden awaiting transfer to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center — was in pieces.

“What Dale had happen today was just unfortunate,” said giant cabbage world-record holder Scott Robb, who was judging the pumpkin weigh-off on Tuesday.

If officially measured at the estimated weight, it would have broken the previous record of 1,287 pounds, set by J.D. Megchelsen in 2011. That same year, Marshall had submitted a pumpkin almost 500 pounds heavier than Megchelsen’s, but it had a hole about the circumference of his little finger that ran straight to the center of the gourd — a disqualification.

So when Marshall stepped up to the plate this year with his second-best pumpkin, he had one more shot at the record — and struck out. The pumpkin weighed in at 965 pounds, then was disqualified for having a center-deep hole.

Marshall laughed and remained in good spirits.

“It’s fun,” he said, of growing prodigious pumpkins. “It’s way cool to watch ’em get that big.”

Though the pumpkins “shut down a little bit” in the heat this summer, Marshall said, it was good for his marrows (giant zucchini) and cabbages. And he didn’t blame the hot weather for his losses.

Instead, he praised the fair for being able to host such an event, with the blessing of the international Great Pumpkin Commonwealth (GPC).

“Someone could bring in a pumpkin that was 3,000 pounds, but if the fair wasn’t a member (of the GPC), it wouldn’t count,” Marshall said.

As for the future Alaska pumpkin weigh-off record, Marshall said he plans to “keep chasing that thing.”

Robb said Marshall’s got a good chance of that.

“He’s got a heck of a set-up … and if he continues (growing) I think we’ll see a 2,000-pounder,” Robb said.

Contact reporter Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.