--- title: Giant Pumpkin Said to Set North American Record description: A giant pumpkin is said to have set the North America record canonical: https://time.com/4043552/pumpkin-north-american-record/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-21T21:55:04.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:25:00.523Z og:title: Giant Pumpkin "Squashes" North American Record og:description: It weighs more than 2,000 pounds og:url: https://time.com/4043552/pumpkin-north-american-record/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Giant Pumpkin "Squashes" North American Record twitter:description: It weighs more than 2,000 pounds twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Giant Pumpkin "Squashes" North American Record  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Sep 21, 2015 9:55 PM UTC  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Sep 21, 2015 9:55 PM UTC A giant pumpkin at the Cedarburg Wine & Harvest Festival in Wisconsin weighed in at 2,145.5 pounds (a little more than a ton), setting a new North American record. > [](https://twitter.com/GPCpumpkin/status/645341960849485825) Factory worker Gene McMullen, who grew the pumpkin in Streator, Illinois, called the achievement “dumb luck” in an interview with [FOX 6 Now](http://fox6now.com/2015/09/19/giant-pumpkin-breaks-north-american-record-at-cedarburg-wine-harvest-festival/). The giant one he entered last year weighed about 1,600 pounds. [_Read next: The Great Pumpkin Race: Inside the world of farmers and dreamers who live to grow giant gourds_](http://time.com/the-great-pumpkin-race/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4043552/pumpkin-north-american-record/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4043552/pumpkin-north-american-record/"},"headline":"Giant Pumpkin \"Squashes\" North American Record","datePublished":"2015-09-21T21:55:04.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:25:00.523Z","description":"It weighs more than 2,000 pounds","url":"https://time.com/4043552/pumpkin-north-american-record/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Food & Drink"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Olivia B. Waxman","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4043552/pumpkin-north-american-record/","name":"Giant Pumpkin \"Squashes\" North American Record"}}]}] ```