Monthly Archives: October 2007

Frankfort's Pumpkin Sculptor Ed Moody

Ed Moody, Pumpkin Sculptor by John Clement Howe

The photo is Ed Moody, Pumpkin Sculptor by John Clement Howe, part of his nifty set of photos titled The Pumpkin Sculptor of Frankfort (which was updated with more photos today!). Giant Jack O' Lantern with Multiple PersonalitiesEd is something of a legend in northern Michigan, sculpting over 11,000 lbs of pumpkins for his home display in 2005. His web site pumpkined.com features lots of photos of pumpkins he's carved and says that:

Ed started to carve pumpkins when he was about 6 years old. He didn't start sculpting smaller pumpkins until 15 years ago and graduated to giant pumpkins 7 years ago when his 5 year dream of carving a Cinderella pumpkin came true with his purchase of a 590 lb. pumpkin. He is now known for his Cinderella carriage pumpkin every year.

Speaking of Ed Moody & pumpkins, here's the Frankfort Fall Festival weigh off results from Ed Moody and the Frankfort-Elberta Chamber:

1st Place Pumpkin - Chad Swarts of Clare - 1,151lb pumpkin
2nd Place Pumpkin - Joe Platte of Comstock Park - 964 lb pumpkin
3rd Place Pumpkin - Chad Swarts of Clare 963.5 lb pumpkin
1st Place Squash - Chad Swarts - 963 lb squash
2nd Place Squash - Todd Swarts - 572 lb squash
3rd Place Squash - Linda Grigg - 403 lb squash
1st Place Watermelon - Lori Swarts - 143.5 lb watermelon
2nd place watermelon - Chad Swarts - 124 lb watermelon

In case you missed it, here's a video featuring Chad Swarts massive pumpkin demolishing a car.

Red

Red by Church of One

This great fall photo is titled "Red" and is just one of many great photos that are being added to the betsiebay.net group on Flickr.

It was taken on a Benzie County road on October 6, 2007 by Church of One. It's part of her excellent Autumn getaway 2007 photoset that has a lot of cool photos from the area and will give you an idea of the state of color (view them as a slideshow).

Pumpkin launching over Betsie Bay

Video of the giant pumpkin drop and launching pumpkins with trebuchets (catapults) at the 2007 Frankfort Fall Festival. You can see a photo of what the pumpkin did to the car in the Benzie County group on Flickr!

The participants were Traverse City West Senior High, Glen Lake High School (whose videos somehow got corrupted - sorry), Manufacturer's Technical Academy of Traverse City and Grand Traverse Academy. They wanted to thank the MEEMIC Insurance Co for sponsorship.

Also a big thanks to Song of the Lakes for letting us use their song Haul Away Joe!