Better call Charlie Brown: Record-breaking pumpkin measured at Arizona State Fair
Nov 6, 2015, 8:05 PM
A view of the Arizona State Fairgrounds, located near 17th Avenue and McDowell Road in Phoenix, as seen from the top of La Grande Wheel. (Mara Hedblom/KTAR)
(Mara Hedblom/KTAR)
PHOENIX — Somebody better tell Charlie Brown that his Great Pumpkin is hiding in Phoenix.
(Photo: Jeannie Berg/Arizona State Fair)
Officials with the Arizona State Fair measured a record-breaking 187-pound pumpkin on Friday, demolishing all previous Blue Ribbon first place records.
The pumpkin was entered into the contest by longtime exhibitor Lloyd Sampson of Page, Arizona, according to a recent press release.
In fact, the pumpkin was so large that it literally tipped the scales in the Arizona State Fair Horticulture department and Southwest Scales had to bring a special one in just to verify its weight.
Before the official weigh-in, air officials initially estimated the pumpkin to weigh more than 200 pounds and compared it to a boulder or a small cow.
Horticulture Superintendent Cheryl Bebbington said this was the first time in the 131 years of the fair that officials have seen anything like this.
“We don’t get huge pumpkins like this in Arizona, but maybe if people see this, they’ll get excited and want to grow pumpkins,” she said in the press release. “This is what the Fair is all about.”
