NORTH LOGAN, Utah — Forty-one years ago, Marie Beutler Godfrey's mother painted a little pumpkin scene outside her family farm in North Logan.
"Some young teenage boys got the idea to throw some of those pumpkins around as it happened the policemen were in the area, local policemen, and brought them to her door," Marie recalled.
Her mother invited them inside and offered them a treat. When the officer asked her what she wanted him to do next, she didn't ask the young boys to be punished.
"She said, 'Why don't you just come back next year and help me build a bigger better scene?'," Marie said.
Every year after, the scene got bigger and would be known as the North Logan Pumpkin Walk.
In 1992, it moved to Elk Ridge Park, where the city now sponsors the event.
"The farm couldn't hold the population that went through there were up to 10,000 people each night that walked through their farm and it grew to almost 20,000," said Marie's husband, Ron Godfrey.
The Pumpkin Walk is a community event run by all volunteers — some of whom have been part of the event for years.
"We craft scenes out of pumpkins, gourds, and squash and other available fall produce items, paint them, and create something really special and magical," said Rachel Worthen the Entertainment Coordinator for the North Logan Pumpkin Walk Committee.
This year the walk has nearly 50 scenes — Worthen's family and friends helped create a Spiderman design.
"I love watching people walk by and see all of our hard work," Worthen said. "I love to kind of just stand in the corner and listen to them say, 'Oh my gosh, look at that,' or 'They did this,' or 'I love this'."
The Beutler Godfrey family recreated the magic of the 2024 Paris Olympics.
"We love athletics, so we wanted to honor two of the people that were here in the valley, Connor Mantz and Chari Hawkins, and then anyone else that came upon the minds of the children," Ron said.
"There's such a comradery as you come and walk around and people are building their scenes," Marie added.
Marie says her parents worried Halloween was becoming "too dark," so she thinks they'd be proud of what the North Logan Pumpkin Walk has become.
"I think it does create that environment that my parents would've appreciated so much warmth, community, outreach, inclusion, so we love it," she said.
The North Logan Pumpkin Walk is free to the public. The pumpkin scenes will be on display through October 15, excluding October 13 on Sunday.
