Every autumn, on the weekend after Halloween, thousands of people gather at a farm near Millsboro, Del., for the World Championship Punkin Chunkin. Among this crowd are the world's elite chunkers. They come from across the country and around the world, bringing with them an array of fearsome machines.
Over the past two decades, this strange event has grown from its humble beginnings. It began as these things often begin, with a small group of friends, a pile of pumpkins and, of course, beer. The first winner tossed a pumpkin 126 feet.
But in a 21st-century chunk, pumpkins are no longer simply hurled by hand. They are flung from catapaults and giant slingshots. They are fired from enormous air cannons. Last year's winners propelled a pumpkin 4,434.28 feet.
The Punkin Chunkin is silly, but sublimely silly. Pumpkins were not born to fly. There's something glorious about seeing one slip the surly bonds of earth and soar for the better part of a mile.
There's also something glorious about the way drunken gourd-flinging has evolved into a two-day event that drew 33,000 people last year, raising thousands of dollars for charity and pumping thousands more into the local economy of lower Delaware. It's the entrepreneurial spirit of America.
That is why yesterday's news, that the chunkin is in need of a new home, has state officials springing into action:
Jane Haseldine of the Delaware Economic Development Office said state and Sussex County officials are working hard to find a site to keep it here.
"It's definitely a unique event and we're very proud of it," she said. …
Although no one knows how much money the event brings in to the county, officials know it has been a boon to the local economy. Motels offer visitor specials, gas stations post "Welcome Punkin Chunkers" signs and businesses sell Chunkin Punkin milkshakes and other novelties. …
State and county officials are working with the Punkin Chunkin Association to find a site to meet the event's needs of at least 350-400 acres and a shooting zone at least a mile long, Haseldine said.
Julie Miro Wenger, acting director of the Delaware Tourism Office, said officials want to do "anything we can do to keep it in Sussex County," especially since it draws so many visitors in the off-season.
The state of Delaware is still recovering from the news that the LPGA Championship will not be returning to the DuPont Country Club next year. That event drew more than 100,000 people each year, bringing with them millions of dollars for the state's economy. The Punkin Chunkin doesn't have an impact of that size (yet), but its loss would be felt in the downstate economy.
Here's hoping a new home will be found for next year's chunk somewhere nearby to the competition's birthplace in Sussex County, where it belongs.
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