Today in 1997 was a very gourd day on the campus of Cornell University.
People on campus woke up to find that someone had put a very large pumpkin on top of the campus’s McGraw Tower, which was really something because that was 173 feet in the air.
And that was the big question: how the heck had somebody gotten all that way up there, without being spotted, and put a pumpkin at the top of the spire?
The prank made national news.
The campus newspaper started a daily “pumpkin watch” feature.
There was even a webcam for non-Cornell people to check out the pumpkin, which itself was a pretty big deal for the internet of 1997.
Over the years, we’ve gotten answers to some of the many questions about the Great Cornell Pumpkin.
We might know how the prank was done: years later, a campus worker came forward to say that three students had found a way into the building at night, made their way to the interior of the tower and hoisted the pumpkin higher and higher with a rope.
After that, one of the students reportedly just free-climbed the outside of the tower; the tiles there had two-inch deep wells in between the raised borders, which were like hand and footholds.
Still risky, but not impossible.
We also know that the pumpkin was an actual pumpkin.
Another group of students used a remote control weather balloon with a drill attached to get a core sample.
Scientists confirmed this after the pumpkin came down, which was a whole story on its own.
In March 1998, 158 days after the gourd appeared, workers were going to use a crane bucket to retrieve it, but before they could go up, a wind gust clonked the bucket into the tower.
That knocked the pumpkin about 20 feet down onto a construction scaffold – intact, because it was still frozen from winter.
We still don’t know who was involved; they’ve never come forward.
But we know that they have fans.
In October 2023, when McGraw Tower was under repair and covered in construction scaffolding, two guys put another pumpkin back on the spire.
Though that pumpkin only got to stay up for like three days.
This Sunday in Austin, Texas, it’s Quesoff, an event full of melted cheese, a good cause and no mystery.
Teams will raise money for the Central Texas Food Bank by trying to produce the very best queso in four categories: meaty, spicy, veggie and wild card.
Ok, so there’s a little mystery.
HOW THE PUMPKIN GOT ON THE TOWER (Cornell Sun via Archive.org)
