Kenova is in far west West Virginia, at the split of the Ohio and Big Sandy Rivers.
Every year the former mayor of Kenova, West Virginia takes his historic home along the Ohio River to celebrate the Halloween season.
The Kenova Pumpkin House is a renowned tourist destination and it takes three weeks, hundreds of volunteers, and 3,000 pumpkins to make Halloween extravagance.
Ric Griffith, the former Kenova mayor is behind this extravagant display and he used to be the town’s mayor, and he owns the town’s pharmacy too. It all started, with just four pumpkins decorating the Griffith & Feil Drug Store but when he and his family moved to the Beech Street house the number of pumpkins grew.
First, it was up to 500. Then 1,000 and by the year 2000. He settled on 3,000 and has kept it there ever since. Ric is not alone in carving the pumpkins as hundreds of volunteers help with the drilling, scooping, rinsing and carving of each pumpkin, and it takes another legion of carpenters and electricians to build-out and rig-up the displays.
Each year in October, Kenova hosts ‘C-K AutumnFest’ where the Pumpkin House serves as the main attraction, along with a number of fall festivities, including a great scarecrow hunt, bake-off, and a tractor show.
According to Atlas Obscura website: ‘’During the first week of October a local farm delivers the pumpkins, and from then until the town’s C-K Autumnfest (for 2016 that’s October 28 & 29) it’s a flurry of pumpkin guts, bleach baths and jigsaws to get ready for the lighting.point 536 |
After all that work, the display comes down after Halloween night.point 56 | ’’point 62 | 1
‘’The Pumpkin House has been a Kenova destination for nearly 30 years, with no charge to any visitor and no donations accepted either. But if you insist on spending some money, you can hit up the food trucks out front.’’
[rumble video_id=v3bnsb domain_id=u7nb2]