The fall is filled with colorful leaves, scents of cinnamon, and an abundance of red apples. The great outdoors get that much greater when the temperatures drop. What people don’t know is that cranes are a vital part of autumn festivities.

In the fall, cranes are responsible for dropping giant pumpkins from hundreds of feet above as crowds of people gather to watch the pumpkins splatter on the ground to pieces. For many towns, dropping giant pumpkins is a tradition and a crane is usually present to do the honors.

Many states hold this pumpkin dropping tradition, including Minnesota, Colorado, Wisconsin, New York, and even our home state of Massachusetts. In Scituate, MA at R & C Farms, the pumpkins dropped are even filled with candy and the crowd can run and gather the candy when the pumpkin comes plummeting to the ground below. Some events put old cards or pools underneath the pumpkins, just to see the outcome of the pumpkin smashing into it.

Why are cranes chosen to drop large pumpkins all over the United States? They can hold a tremendous amount of weight.  A pumpkin dropped in New York weighed in at 1,717 pounds and had been growing for 6 years. Pumpkins range from 300 pounds to over 1,000 pounds. When the pumpkins hit the ground, they often spray pumpkin seeds and debris onto the crowd.

Cranes are also chosen because of how high they can hold the pumpkins in the air, making the physical dropping of the pumpkin that much better. Some cranes can reach as high as 230 feet but most pumpkins are dropped between 60 and 120 feet.

Cranes can be rented out for these events and many places will donate cranes to their local farms as well in order to be the crane company used. If you find yourself at a pumpkin dropping, you’ll likely notice a crane towering over the crowd. If you see a pool of water underneath it, we suggest taking a few steps back.