BOOTHBAY, Maine — Throughout the hot, dry summer, three midcoast Maine museum officials added an extra duty to their usual roster: tending the Atlantic Giant pumpkin seedlings they had planted in the name of fun and competition.
After this week’s weigh-in, the winner of the biggest pumpkin bet was clear. It was the Boothbay Railway Village in Boothbay, where careful watering and abundant space allowed the giant pumpkin to swell to 606.5 pounds. That is by no means the largest pumpkin grown in Maine this year — that honor went to CBS-13 meteorologist Charlie Lopresti, with his 1,711.5-pound entry — but its bulk easily dwarfed the 197-pound pumpkin grown by the staff of the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland and the 148.5-pound pumpkin entered by the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath.
“The real trick is you have to water the darn thing a lot,” Margaret Hoffman, executive director of the Boothbay Railway Village, said. “And we do have a collection of agricultural things, so maybe it just felt more at home here.”
Though she’s enjoying the bragging rights that came with the pumpkin’s triumphant girth, all of the nonprofit organizations won something, Hoffman said, because all are taking part in and benefiting from the inaugural year of Maine’s Pumpkin Trail. The new seasonal tourist trail celebrating the most popular autumn gourd is designed to highlight family-friendly activities that run through the end of October along a 50-mile stretch of the Maine coast.
The pumpkin trail is similar to other tourism marketing schemes like the Maine beer trail and the Maine art museum trail, but its ephemeral nature — just September and October — sets it apart. Hoffman said the idea for the pumpkin trail came about in part because organizations realized they were separately working to get the word out about their fall activities, all of which happened in a similar time frame and geographic location.
“I realized that the Damariscotta Pumpkinfest and Regatta was taking place at the same time as the Fall Foliage Festival [in Boothbay] and I thought it was ridiculous we weren’t working together,” Hoffman said. “That’s how it started. … We didn’t have a name for the pumpkin trail at the beginning, but we knew we had something good. A really interesting mix of places and activities.”
Those include the ever-popular Damariscotta festival, which is marking its 10th quirky year right now. The pumpkin-centric events that lure tens of thousands of people to the streets of the community will last through Monday, Oct. 10, and are highlighted by the pumpkin regatta, in which brave captains pilot boats carved out of giant pumpkins around the Damariscotta River with varying degrees of success. Pumpkin boats that sink, by the way, are no less appreciated by the cheering crowds. The regatta is scheduled for the afternoon of Sunday, Oct. 9, and the official giant pumpkin parade will be held the afternoon of Saturday, Oct. 8.
But the fun doesn’t stop with Damariscotta, Hoffman said. In Boothbay, there’s the Foliage Fest, now in its 49th year, which features fine arts, crafts, local foods, a pumpkin carving contest and train rides, happening all day Saturday, Oct. 8, and Sunday, Oct. 9. In Rockland, the Farnsworth Art Museum’s new show, “The Art of Disaster,” will open Friday, Oct. 7, with some special pumpkin-themed additions. And in Bath, there will be a special cemetery tour on Wednesday, Oct. 12.
So far, response to the new trail has been positive. It has garnered more than 2,000 likes on Facebook, and people seem to be enjoying making the trek to the different locales, Hoffman said.
“We’re keeping it light and having a good time,” she said. “Anytime you call something a pumpkin trail, it can’t take itself too seriously, right?”