World Championship Punkin Chunkin heads to Midwest

Pumpkins won't be flying in the sky over Sussex County or splashing into the Atlantic Ocean along the shore of Ocean City this fall.

The World Championship Punkin Chunkin competition is moving to Rantoul, Ill., at the former Chanute Air Force Base, closed in 1993.

The association announced May 28 that team captains voted 70 percent in favor of the new location. Three-fourths of teams participated in the vote. The association has set Nov. 1, 2 and 3 as dates for the event.

According to the association's website, the town's hospitality plus the location were deciding factors in making the move out of Sussex County where Punkin Chunkin has taken place since 1986. The event started with a few makeshift machines in a Lewes field and grew into a national sensation broadcast as a Thanksgiving special by the Science Channel.

Getting back to the roots

Association President Frank Payton said he will make a visit to Rantoul in the next two weeks to finalize details with town officials and start working out logistics. “This change of venue addresses everyone's concerns,” he said.

Payton said a music video he posted on Facebook led to contacts with Rantoul officials.

“There is a lot of open space there, and it's very rural. It's like we are getting back to our roots,” Payton said.

He said several factors were involved in the selection, including the proposed budget. “The money we will need to spend will be nowhere near what we had to spend in Delaware,” he said.

He said police and traffic control alone cost the association as much as $90,000.

Another advantage to the location is that it's not a farm field, Payton said. In the past, the association has had to work their timeline around crop schedules that reduced setup time.

“We would have preferred to do the event in the area,” Payton said. “But we are excited to make changes necessary to keep the event alive. We see potential for a lot of growth for our organization there.”

He said the association's base will remain in Delaware. “We will definitely be doing a large caravan at some point,” he said.

Payton said he doesn't anticipate a reduction in team attendance. While many teams come from the New England and Mid-Atlantic area, other teams come from areas where events have taken place such as Morton, Ill., Colorado, Ohio and Texas.

Payton said he will attend the Half Century of Progress Show Aug. 22-25 highlighting the farm industry in the area to check out logistics and site preparation. He said teams of association members will travel to the site during the summer as well.

Last event was in 2016

The event attracting thousands of fans has been on hold four of the last five years. The last chunk took place three years ago. Due to insurance and logistics issues, the event was cancelled in 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2018. It returned to the Wheatley Farm near Bridgeville in 2016.

“We are in support of the landowner's decision not to host the event,” according to the website.

Although it has moved four times, Punkin Chunkin has never been in any place other than Sussex County.

The association had placed a May 1 deadline for a Sussex County landowner or organization to step forward to host the event. The association had been approached by an Ocean City promoter to hold the event on the beach,

On Feb. 8, organizers said they would stage the event again in 2019 – if they could find a location. The group said they needed at least 600 acres to accommodate parking, camping, vending and participants.

Hundreds of teams in various divisions – from human powered to powerful air cannons – have competed for bragging rights over the event's three decades of tossing pumpkins.

The event attained national attention when Science Channel became a sponsor, filmed the event and broadcast it as a Thanksgiving special. The sponsorship was withdrawn following the 2016 event, and the show was not broadcast that year due to a serious accident involving a show producer, leading to a lawsuit.

The current world chunk record, held by the American Chunker air cannon team, is 4,694 feet, set in 2013.

Rantoul founded in 1854

Rantoul, located in east central Illinois, was founded in 1854 as a railroad town. When the Chanute Air Force Base was in full operation, thousands of residents worked there and the population swelled to more than 25,000 residents in 1970. The latest census shows the population has fallen to just under 13,000 residents.

The former Air Force Base – used for training in World War I and World War II – is being repurposed for community use with motels, retirement centers, restaurants, housing, a golf course and light manufacturing facilities.