By Danny Chandler

Ghosts may fly through the air everywhere else, but in Moab, it's the pumpkins that come alive and take flight on Halloween.

The 4th Annual Pumpkin Chuckin’ Festival was held Saturday in Moab. Everyone in attendance was encouraged to dress up for Halloween.

“It's great to see the community in their Halloween costumes,” said Moab resident Kenna Watkins. “And who doesn't want to see a good pumpkin get chucked?”

The main draw to the festival is the Pumpkin Chuckin’ Competition, where participants build catapults and trebuchets to launch pumpkins hundreds of feet through the air.

A trebuchet is a French version of a catapult, with greater capabilities for distance, weight and accuracy. 

“There's really no secret to building a trebuchet; they've been building them for thousands of years,” said Dale Irish, team captain of The Pumpkin Pirates, sponsored by thrift store Wabi Sabi.

Their trebuchet won the competition each year the Pumpkin Chuckin’ Festival has been held. In pirate fashion, The Pumpkin Pirates’ trebuchet looks like a pirate ship made of cardboard boxes.
“Everything we use is recycled: the trebuchet, the decoration, our clothes,” Irish said. “We’re having fun, but everyone who competes is here for a reason.”

Jim Molter is team captain of Moab Friends 4 Wheelin’. It's the team's first foray into trebuchet building and its first time entering in the Pumpkin Chuckin’ Festival.

“We built the thing in a day, shot some pumpkins off, and then made some adjustments to see if it could go further,” Molter said.

Molter and his team named their trebuchet “Jose the Trebuchet.”
The team is averaging around 220 feet with their trebuchet launches. Probably not enough to win, but that's not why they’re competing.

“We have a booth set up to benefit the Moab Humane Society,” Molter said. “It’s really just a blast, and we happen to help others in the meantime.”

Each of the 13 pumpkin-chucking teams participating in the festival has three chances to compete for distance and accuracy.

The Luchadores and The Lumberjacks took early leads, but in the end, it's the Pumpkin Pirates who again take home the prize. Their winning distance is 350 feet, with accuracy within 11 feet.
“I don’t want to talk about winning,” Irish said. “Pirates are very superstitious, remember?”

The festival is sponsored by the Youth Garden Project, a non-profit organization that raises money for other charities in Moab.