Pumpkinfest Celebrates Folk Basics, Hurled Squash
By WPR's Mike Simonson
9/29/05
A "back to the basics" school celebrated the annual fall harvest recently along the shore of Lake Superior in Washburn. Their message is as simple as their celebration: it's centered around pumpkins. But going back to basics isn't always the easiest way to go. |  |
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The Clear Water Folk School of Chequamegon Bay began operations in 2000. It's one of just two folk schools in Wisconsin and a few dozen in the entire country. This is the fourth year they've sponsored "Pumpkinfest".
Pumpkin festivals aren't unique this time of year, but this one has something the others don't have. They have a catapult -- a 15-foot high trebuchet -- aimed at a large monster-pumpkin boat floating on Lake Superior. Participants take turns hurling pumpkins at the boat, floating a few hundred feet off-shore |
 The Pumpkin Festival of Washburn was sparked by the generosity of a local man named Jeff Steffenson. Clear Water Folk School co-founder Mike Jones says Steffenson may have been limited by Down's Syndrome, "but there was no limit to his capacity to give". He had a pumpkin patch...and every autumn he'd quietly leave pumpkins on people's porches. |  |
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The folk school promotes living simply, and enjoying hands-on activities. That philosophy is very much a part of the annual Pumpkinfest, where games of skill and chance are powered by basic enthusiasm, rather than electricity. Below, a youngster aims a beanbag through a pumpkin-target.
Photos by Jennifer Simonson, WPR.
