1,800-Pound Pumpkin Dropped From 200-Foot Crane, Destroys Outhouse

WORLAND — More than 4 tons' worth of giant pumpkins were weighed at the 2025 Wyoming State Championship Weigh-Off and Pumpkin Drop on Saturday. Then, a lot of that tonnage was hoisted 200 feet into the air and dropped to explode in spectacular fashion.

The climax of the event was watching a 1,700-pound pumpkin smash the crap out of a porta-potty.

The cold, windy weather did nothing to dampen the spirits of people whose “pumpkin fever” had them fiendishly devoted to their pumpkins, zucchinis, and watermelons for months. 

They came to see the weight of their work, then watch it explode into smithereens.

Jay Richard, aka Wyoming’s Pumpkin King, ensured nobody left the Washakie County Fairgrounds disappointed.

The main event of the day was watching the largest pumpkin of the weigh-off become the largest pumpkin ever dropped in Wyoming, destroying a porta-potty with incredible precision as it crashed into the ground.

“You can’t get more redneck than pumpkins, an outhouse, and a 200-foot crane,” Richard said. “I don’t know why, but destroying an outhouse is my crown jewel of pumpkin drops.”

Cream Of The Crop (And The State)

The weigh-off began at 11 a.m. The forklift used to lift the 1,000-plus-pound pumpkins onto the scale got stuck in the mud briefly, but the otherwise rainy and windy weather did nothing to stop the dedicated crew of volunteers from making the weigh-off memorable.

The envy of all was Chad Kurtenbach’s massive pumpkin, grown in his backyard in Lovell over the last several months. Everyone knew it was the largest squash at the weigh-off, but nobody knew exactly how big it was.

“If this is a record-breaker, it’ll hold it for about an hour,” Richard said.

The Wyoming state record for a pumpkin was set by Andy and Amy Corbin in 2023, with a 2,062-pound behemoth they grew in Cheyenne. 

Richard knew the Corbins were poised to break their own record on Saturday at a competition in Colorado, which they did with a 2,085-pound pumpkin they had grown this season.

Kurtenbach’s pumpkin weighed in at 1,788 pounds. It was short of record-breaking and a bit smaller than anticipated, but it was his personal best and the largest pumpkin at the weigh-off.

“I’d trade for that one,” Richard said, referencing his “disappointing” crop of pumpkins this year. “It’s only a 530-pound improvement over his personal best.”

The most anticipated pumpkin was brought to Worland from Montana. 

Joe Nigro was looking to break Montana’s state record of 1,359 pounds with a well-shaped pumpkin he’d been doting on since he planted the seed on May 1.

“I’ve been chasing the dragon for the last five years,” Nigro told Cowboy State Daily. “I didn’t plan on being here. It was all hail, and bugs, and fungus, and mildew, and everything else this year.”

Despite everything, Nigro’s pumpkin weighed in at 1,591 pounds, more than 100 pounds over what he expected. That clinched a new state record for a Montana-grown pumpkin.

“It feels great, and very relieving,” he said. “It all came together.”

Family Farming

Nearly 30 pumpkins were brought to Worland for the weigh-off, and they were all placed on the scale as the day progressed. 

Many people set new personal bests and reveled in each other’s achievements.

Joley Reed, 11, is only in her second year of growing pumpkins, but she had a point to prove. She made a bet with her grandmother, Jen, over who could grow the greater gourd.

Reed’s “pug-kin” was a little squished but pretty to look at. She guessed it would weigh in at around 427 pounds, but Richard told her she’d have to “make do” with an actual weight of 473 pounds.

Jen’s pumpkin came in at a respectable 369 pounds, ensuring Joley won their bet. 

But the family bragging rights went to Joley’s father, Dustin, and his 518-pound pumpkin.

Ethan Mills, who was celebrating his 7th birthday on Sunday, has been tucking in his pumpkin every night since mid-June. His personal best was set at the Wyoming Weigh-Off in 2023 at 368 pounds.

On Saturday, Mills achieved a new personal best with a 512-pound pumpkin that won this year’s Youth Division. He credits his success to the “lucky salamander” living in his pumpkin patch.

Ron Hoffman of Riverton didn’t bring a pumpkin to Worland this year. He focused his energy on a massive marrow that weighed in at over 81 pounds, easily the biggest marrow at the weigh-off.

Richard didn’t have the biggest or prettiest pumpkin at the weigh-off, but he proudly claimed the title of “the ugliest.”

“Nobody grew an uglier pumpkin than me this year,” he said. 

His pumpkin “Jackie” resembled the Looney Tunes character Tasmanian Devil and, at 570 pounds, was the fourth-largest in Worland.

The Harder They Fall

After some of the pumpkins were weighed, they were lifted onto a flatbed trailer rather than returning home with their growers. 

It was a harvest hearse that would carry them to the arena at the Washakie County Fairgrounds, where the 200-foot Pumpkin Drop awaited.

Worland's Swing Trucking Inc. offered its new 275-foot crane for this year’s Pumpkin Drop. That brought the event to new heights, as the crane could lift the pumpkins 100 feet higher than in the past.

The plan was to drop them from that 275 feet high, but because of the wind that was reeled in a bit to 200 feet.

Morning thunder caused some apprehension about the safety of a pumpkin drop. As Richard put it, “nobody wants to become a Ben Franklin experiment.”

By 3 p.m., the skies were anything but clear. There was no sign of thunder or lightning, and several pumpkins, including Kurtenbach’s, were waiting to be dropped.

Richard didn’t throw caution to the wind but decided it was safe enough to bring this year’s weigh-off to a dramatic end. 

The crane lowered its jib, and the pumpkins were secured in a custom-made harness built by Ed Keller of Wyoming Bucket LLC, which Richard called “the finest pumpkin rig on Planet Earth.”

“With this wind, the highest we can safely go is 200 feet,” Richard said. “That’s still taller than the sugar silos.”

The wind speed at the top of the 200-foot crane was 22 mph. The first pumpkin to make the ascent was “Kelly,” the largest of the three pumpkins Richard grew this year, at 1,614 pounds.

Kelly was positioned over an inflatable swimming pool, and with a gentle tug, made the 200-foot drop to the ground. The result was dramatic, to put it mildly.

“These are the highest, heaviest pumpkins in Wyoming’s history,” Richard said.

After that, Richard and his crew made a few “snowmen” by putting two smaller pumpkins in the lift at the same time. They dropped simultaneously and exploded within milliseconds of each other.

Occupied & Pulverized

The outhouse porta-potty was reserved for the largest, Kurtenbach’s pumpkin, which was generously donated to the drop. 

Richard said the day’s biggest pumpkin measured more than 18 feet around, easily making it the largest pumpkin ever dropped in Wyoming.

Hoffman’s winning marrow was placed atop the winning pumpkin, and they were lifted 200 feet together. Then, after the final countdown, it plummeted down and precisely onto the outhouse.

If the outhouse wasn’t empty before, it was then. The arena was covered in a fine layer of blue-tinted mud, plastic, and pieces of pulverized pumpkin splattered over an area of about 100 feet.

The biggest revelation was that the last occupant of the outhouse left the lid up.

“That shows I was the last one in there,” Richard said. “We didn’t say if it was empty or not.”

Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.