As the season of cooler days, scary nights and leaf crunching gets underway, the search is on for the best family spot to enjoy a venerable Halloween tradition by picking up some gourd vibrations.
In Tulsa, one family’s passion for pumpkins has led to the creation of Pumpkin Town Farms – the Halloween hotspot in the city and its surrounding areas for 18 years. What started as a truckload of pumpkins, one white tent and two parents looking for a business to pay for their children’s education has since grown to a 20-acre site complete with maze, petting zoo and a purpose-built hill to house its Thunder Mountain slides.
Co-owner Brigette Basse said that this year, the maze would be taking on a Thunder basketball theme, with players coming out on Oct. 1 along with the Thunder Bolt vehicle, Thunder Girls and mascot Rumble. “The OKC Thunder are celebrating their tenth anniversary in the city this year, so we thought it would make the perfect partnership,” explains Basse.
Meanwhile, in the metro, Pumpkinville opens at the Myriad Gardens on Oct. 6. There, the children’s garden will be colorfully transformed into Prairie Pumpkin Tower, complete with painting stations, the Pumpkinville Express Train and 16,000 pumpkins.
In Arcadia, Parkhurst Ranch offers a day out in the country with a pumpkin patch, maze, petting zoo and pony rides. Since it opened a decade ago, owners have mastered fall traditions from hayrides to firepits where you can cook your own s’mores and hotdogs.
TG Farms in Norman and Newcastle switches from summer produce providers to a pick-your-own pumpkin patch in the fall, and Chickasha’s Reding Farm claims the largest corn maze in Oklahoma, covering 35 acres. For those who manage to find their way out and want more, the farm’s haunted maze, “Harvest of Fear,” is open through November.
► More information on these attractions can be found at:
myriadgardens.org/pumpkinville
