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Oh, Great Pumpkin

Food, carving, music and crafts part of annual fest

LEFT: One-year-old Jody Kelsh of Charleston admires the size of one pumpkin entered in the West Virginia Pumpkin Festival pumpkin weighing contest

photo story by MIKE ANDRICK

I have always had a fascination with small towns, small-town people and small-town activities. When I decided to do a series of photo stories, I decided the small towns surrounding Huntington would make for great photographs. I started with Milton.

Milton is a town about 15 miles up I-64 from Huntington. The town was named after Milton Reece who was a landowner in the area and incorporated in 1876. Now, a little more than 2,000 people live in Milton.

Milton held its first West Virginia Pumpkin Festival in 1986. Since then, the festival, which is held the first full weekend in October, grew from a small event into a weekend festival more than 50,000 people participate in.

"Milton is a good community (for the pumpkin festival) because it has the farms that grow pumpkins," Betty Testerman, member of the festival's board of directors and 60-year resident of Milton, said. "This festival gets the whole community (of Milton) involved."

The festival features a variety of activities from blacksmiths, artists and craftsmen to a car show, musicians and a beauty pageant.

"I come for all the crafts, music and food," Rebecca Racer of Hurricane said.

Mary Wooten, a resident of Milton for more than 40 years, said "(The West Virginia Pumpkin Festival) is wonderful. There is something new every year and it is growing bigger and better.

"It's a whole different atmosphere."

This photo story on Milton is just the first of four photo stories I will be doing on the small towns that surround Huntington.

For the next three Tuesdays, there will be photo stories on West Huntington, Wayne County and Barboursville. I hope you enjoy.

Roy Wheeler of Mt. Alto makes a pumpkin sand scultpure. Wheeler's sculpture was one of many things for festival goers to see.

Six-year-old Justin Toler of Danville pets Zeb the donkey at the festival's petting zoo. The zoo was just one of many activities for children to participate in.

Eight-year-old Travis Lakin of Barboursville takes a break at the Pumpkin Patch, which was made up of pumpkins painted by students of local schools.

Emma Bowyer, left and Mary Woods of Milton sing "God Bless America" and show off their American pride with patriotic shirts at the festival.