Waupaca man’s pumpkin carving hobby has been delighting residents of all ages for over 25 years

WAUPACA, Wisconsin ‒ It started 25 years ago with five carved lighted pumpkins displayed in front of Jim and Deb Miller’s rural Waupaca home. Over the years, those five pumpkins grew to 10, then 50, then 100, and then 150.

The display eventually became too big for the Millers to handle, so they moved it three years ago to downtown Waupaca, where it is now part of the city’s annual Halloween on Main Street celebration.

“That’s an interesting question,” Jim Miller said when asked why he’s kept the tradition alive for 2 ½ decades.

“Really, I still enjoy it and I like doing something for the community,” he said while taking a break from carving a pumpkin in his Town of Farmington garage. “There will be a time when it has to stop.”

That time isn’t now, however. Miller and a team of volunteer pumpkin carvers are preparing this year’s display, which will be set up in front of Waupaca’s city hall and library in the 100 block of South Main Street.

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The Millers had the display in front of their Golke Road residence about five miles west of Waupaca for more than 20 years. It became so popular that traffic became a concern, as hundreds of people would visit on a single night if the weather cooperated.

“My intent was to bring it somewhere safer,” Miller said. “This will be our fourth year (in Waupaca). In some respect, it’s not as nice. Transporting all the pumpkins downtown is a chore. I used to just walk them out onto the yard. Now, we have to put them in a truck and bring them down. The nice thing now is anyone with disabilities can walk down the sidewalk.”

The nearby Wisconsin Veterans Home in King would bring a bus full of veterans to the Miller home and now transports veterans downtown.

“Five minutes after the bus went by, they were all out in their walkers and wheelchairs and could actually see it up close for the first time ever,” Miller said.

Weather and deer can upset the best laid plans

Miller begins by planting pumpkin seeds each spring.

“This was a terrible year and last year was phenomenal,” he said. “The deer out there are unbelievable. They learned how to get over an electric fence, so I didn’t get any pumpkins this year.”

Miller works part-time at Turner’s Fresh Market, a local business that grows and sells produce and plants.

“Ross (Turner) ended up giving me about 170 pumpkins and we got a lot of pumpkins from Otto’s Famous Sweet Corn,” he said. “They’re down the road about five miles from here. It kind of happens every three years. I’ve had to go out and outsource pumpkins before. I know quite a few people I can go to. I’ve gone as far as Mosinee before.”

Once the pumpkins are at Miller’s home, he sets them up in his yard.

“We have like 370 right now,” he said. “I don’t even know if we’ll carve all of them. This is more than we’ve ever had. I think we had 350 last year.”

Most of the pumpkins are roughly the same size, which makes them ideal for carving a design. Some are totally round, while others are oblong.

“The face I want is at least 12 inches up until about 18,” Miller said. “I have to be able to lift them. When I started, I had huge pumpkins: 300 to 800-pound pumpkins. These are typically between 25 and 40 pounds.”

Miller comes up with a theme each year.

“Our main theme down the main sidewalk of the library this year is going to be classic monsters: Frankenstein, Dracula,” he said. “The other side is going to be your classic Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th and Scream. There hasn’t been a really good Frankenstein movie in awhile.”

Once the pumpkins are selected, Miller will match a pattern to the gourd’s size.

“This is more of a round pattern, so I’ll put it on a round pumpkin,” he said. “We get (the patterns) glued on and then we take a tattoo gun and go over the pattern and trace it.”

This year’s pumpkin carving began Oct. 13. One of the final steps of the carving process is to remove the bottom of the pumpkin and insert a light.

“It’s all electric,” Miller said. “The second year we were downtown, we had all kinds of rain and I had nothing but problems with the lights shorting out. I found out the city has these great electrical boxes with individual circuits. Now, I get a string of 15 to 18 patio lights. I have one string per section. If that section goes out, I know it’s these 18 and I can figure it out.”

Volunteers make carved pumpkins possible

Miller used to carve the pumpkins himself, but eventually got help from volunteers. He would like to get the Art Club at Waupaca High School involved in the process of carving pumpkins for the display.

“I need to go talk to the art teacher and I’ve been saying that since I moved it down there,” he said. “I would love to have the Art Club come down and carve two or three times.”

Miller uses a Facebook page to spread the word that he’s looking for volunteers.

One of this year’s volunteers is Patty Wagner of Waupaca, who said she has been helping out for eight or nine years.

“I used to bring my kids here when they were little,” she said. “I’ve always been in awe of people who are very artistic because I am not.

“I thought he did all of this by free hand,” she said. “He was doing a class out at Turner’s on pumpkin carving. We went out and he showed us how he did it and sent us home with a pumpkin with a cat that we could carve. We told him we’d be back the next day and I guess he’s heard that a lot. He told his wife that he had met two older women and they were going to come the next day. Guess what? We came back the next day and we never left.”

The carving process allows Wagner and other volunteers to create their personal works of art.

“It’s awesome, especially if it’s a pumpkin that you personally have a connection to,” she said. “We’ve done them for the Humane Society (of Waupaca County) and we’re going to do their logo. That will be on a display that they’re having the weekend before Halloween.”

Wagner has no idea how many pumpkins she’s carved over the years.

“I’m a slower carver,” she said. “We usually come in the afternoon. Today, I was here at about 10:30. I’m not able to come as much this year because I’m having some physical issues, so sitting might prove to be a problem. We have a good time in this garage. What else can I say?”

Wagner doesn’t remember the design of her first pumpkin.

“Are you kidding me?” she asked. “I was a little surprised. We thought when we came that we would be gutting (pumpkins) and helping with that. We didn’t think we’d be thrown into the artistic part of it, but he threw us right in. I still say, ‘Give me the easy ones.’”

Like his pumpkin patch, Miller’s display has grown beyond his expectations

Miller is amazed how the display has grown in 25 years.

“I think we only had five pumpkins that first year,” he said. “I had a big stump in the front yard and I put my big pumpkin on it. We had people stop by and look at it. Then, we went to 13 and 25. That was the only year we had them smashed. It was a couple of kids from the high school. We got it up to about 150. At that time, I think we had five helpers.”

Miller plans to bring 100 to 150 pumpkins to this year’s display.

“We’re going to keep adding until Halloween so you can come back and see different things,” he said. “That takes the pressure off of any of us who are carving. We really pushed ourselves last year. We can take our time and have more fun.”

Miller and his team of volunteers don’t have much time to bring their creations to life.

“You can’t start too early,” he said. “We’re not pulling the pumpkins out of the fields until late September. Once it ramps up, I’m putting at least 12 to 16 hours a day out there.”

Miller said one of the most rewarding things about his efforts is seeing peoples’ reaction.

“We always try to have something for little kids,” he said. “Another theme this year is Rock ‘n’ Roll (bands) from the ‘70s and ‘80s, like Rush, Metallica and Led Zeppelin.”

The Peanuts comic strip is always a part of the display and this year is no different.

“This is the 75th year of the comic strip, so we’re going to do the whole crew, all the characters,” he said.

Waupaca had held Halloween on Main Street events for years before Miller decided to bring his display to town. This year’s event is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 31, which happens to be Halloween.

“That’s a really big night for them and to be honest, I wish the businesses would do more to promote this. It’s a week that (the pumpkin display) is down there.”

Miller never imagined how big the display would become.

“My goal when it was just myself was about 50 (pumpkins) and that was after eight or 10 years,” he said.

The display kept growing after Miller added volunteers. He provides updates on the display’s progress on a Facebook page, facebook.com/groups/PumpkinTimeattheMillers/.

“One of the carvers, Dawn Vincent, said, ‘Well, you need a Facebook page,’” Miller said. “I said, ‘Great, I’m not doing it.’ She said, ‘I’m going to make one for you.’ I said, ‘Go for it.’ That really took off. I believe it has 17,000 followers.”

The pumpkins are scheduled to be lit from dusk to 10 p.m. from Oct. 23 through Nov. 5.

“I don’t think people realize how much work goes into this,” Miller said. “The carving is the easy part.”

This article originally appeared on Wisconsin State Farmer: Waupaca man’s pumpkin carving hobby has been delighting residents of all ages for over 25 years

Reporting by Greg Seubert / Wisconsin State Farmer

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