In Episode 411 Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger travel to Goffstown, New Hampshire, to witness the Giant Pumpkin Regatta boat race on the Piscataquog River. Now in its 25th year, this hilarious fall festival has become legendary. We travel back in time to witness the beginning.
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Produced and hosted by: Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger
Edited by: Ray Auger
Theme Music by: John Judd
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
*A note on the text: Please forgive punctuation, spelling, and grammar mistakes. Like us, the transcripts ain’t perfect.
[BREEZE IN THE AIR]
[RUNNING RIVER]
RAY: You can feel it in the air. It’s drying out. Getting a little cooler at the end of the day. It won’t be long now until it’s Autumn… which means…
JEFF: Pumpkin spiced everything?
RAY: Pumpkin spiced everything.
JEFF: Pumpkin season is minutes away here in New England so it’s a good time to visit Goffstown, New Hampshire.
RAY: Goffstown is a pretty community just a little west of Manchester. But I don’t know why this community would lay more pumpkin claim than any other New England town. What brings us here?
JEFF: Ray, we’ve come to the banks of the Piscataquog River in Goffstown, New Hampshire, to witness their annual Giant Pumpkin Regatta boat race.
[INTRO]
JEFF: Hey, I’m Jeff Belanger.
RAY: And I’m Ray Auger. Welcome to Episode 411 of the New England Legends podcast. Thank you for joining us on our mission to chronicle every legend in New England one story at a time. From ghosts, to monsters, UFOs, weird history and customs, we love it all. Most of our story leads come from you! So please reach out to us anytime through our website with your story ideas and personal weird experiences in New England. We love hearing from you.
JEFF: We’ll take a sail on the Piscataquog river right after this word from our sponsor.
SPONSOR
RAY: Okay… a pumpkin regatta?!
JEFF: That’s what they do.
RAY: So pumpkins sailing on the river?
JEFF: That’s right.
RAY: These must be large pumpkins so you can see them on the water.
JEFF: Very large.
RAY: I’ve seen largest pumpkin contests at county fairs and things like that. I know pumpkins can get pretty big.
JEFF: According to the Guiness Book of World Records, the current record holder for World’s largest Pumpkin is Travis Gienger of Minnesota. In 2023 his pumpkin weighed in at 2,749 pounds.
RAY: That’s over one ton!
JEFF: It is!
RAY: That’s a lot of pumpkin pie.
JEFF: And it would make a pretty big boat.
RAY: I guess it would. So here’s a little more background on Goffstown. The town was first established in 1734 as a Massachusetts township back when the border was still under dispute. It was intended as payment to soldiers who fought in the King Philip’s War decades earlier. In those early years, not many settled here because it wasn’t good farmland. In the mid-1700s, a new wave of settlers came here including Colonel John Goffe—the guy they would eventually name the town after. Once the timber industry in the region took off, the town grew as a mill and lumber town.
JEFF: Today Goffstown is picturesque quaint New England. Main Street is full of shops, cafes, restaurants, and bars, and now more than 18,000 people call this place home. However, for one weekend every October, the town’s population swells up as people come to see the Giant Pumkin Festival and Regatta Boat race. To find out how it happened, let’s head back to the year 2000.
[TRANSITION]
RAY: It’s August of 2000 here in Goffstown, New Hampshire. Bill Clinton is President of the United States, “It’s Gonna Be Me” by NYSNC is the number one song on the radio, and Jeanne Shaheen is the governor of New Hampshire. But things here in Goffstown are quiet… too quiet.
JEFF: They are quiet. Goffstown is looking for a draw to bring in people to town. They’re looking for ideas.
[CROWD MURMER]
[GAVEL BANG THREE TIMES]
JEFF: At this month’s town meeting, they’ve opened it up to ideas from folks in town. One of those people at the meeting is Jim Beauchemin. What the town council of Goffstown doesn’t know, is that Jim is a founding member of the NHGPGA.
RAY: The NHGP… what?!
JEFF: The New Hampshire Giant Pumpkin Growers Association.
RAY: OHHHHH THAT NHGPGA.
JEFF: Right. Back in the mid-1990s, Jim played a role in launching the “700 Club.”
RAY: Okay, back in those days, wasn’t the 700 Club a religious television show?
JEFF: It was! But this club was different. This 700 Club was for people who could grow a pumpkin to 700 pounds or more.
RAY: Okay, I think we need a little more context. The average pumpkin that you might carve for Halloween or turn into a holiday pie weighs between 10 and 20 pounds.
JEFF: That’s it?
RAY: That’s it. Of course there’s really small pumpkins and gourds that could weight less than a pound… but then there’s the other side of the equation. The massive ones. Back in 1857, a Massachusetts pumpkin was grown that weighed in at 196 pounds. At the time, that was record-breaking. No one had seen anything like it. In the coming years, farmers wondered how big they could go. At fall festivals “largest pumpkin” contests began to show up. It became a staple of fall fairs and carnivals. But things changed big time…
JEFF: I get it!
RAY: Right. Pumpkins took a leap in the 1960s. Howard Dill of Nova Scotia, Canada, began to experiment and breed the Atlantic Giant Pumpkin. His pumpkins broke all the records. Others who wanted to grow massive vegetables began to buy his pumpkin seeds. Dill’s Atlantic Giant was officially introduced in 1979. After that, pumpkins began weighing in at 400, 500, and even 600 pounds. Since that time everyone has been trying to outdo the pumpkin size that came before them.
JEFF: The trick is to start growing the massive pumpkin indoors in the winter. Then transplant it to well-drained nutrient rich soil after any danger of frost has passed. It needs plenty of sun and water. Some even offer the growing pumpkins milk. Growers cut away any other side vines so all of the plant’s energy can go into the one massive pumpkin. You also need a little luck. (BEAT) So back to Jim Beauchemin and his 700 club. About a decade ago in the 1990s, Jim was one of the founding members of the 700 Club—a group of people who could grow a 700 pound pumpkin. Given how much bigger the pumpkins have grown in recent year, “700 pounds” seemed like…
RAY: Seemed like it’s setting the bar too low?
JEFF: Exactly.
RAY: So they rebranded to: The New Hampshire Giant Pumpkin Growers Association.
JEFF: You got it. So Beauchemin steps before the town meeting and suggests something different for the fall. Something weird. Something that will draw in crowds. He suggests a Pumpkin Regatta.
RAY: So you throw these big pumpkins in the river and see which one floats the fastest?
JEFF: Not exactly.
RAY: Oh?
JEFF: You carve the pumpkin into a boat, and a sailor climbs inside with a paddle to row it down the river.
RAY: So we’re talking some kind of pumpkin canoe.
JEFF: Exactly.
[GAVEL BANGS THREE TIMES]
JEFF: The Goffstown Town Council thinks the idea is just weird enough to work. So they approve it.
RAY: Their reasoning is sounds. Lots of towns have Fall Festivals already. A biggest pumpkin contest isn’t unique. Growers need a place to show off the results of their hard work. And people like to stroll through those festivals and look at them.
JEFF: That’s true. And just like other fall festivals, the Goffstown version will feature weigh-ins on the pumpkins and prizes to the grower. But then local businesses and groups will bid on the giant pumpkins, carve them, decorate them, and have someone sail them in a race on the river.
RAY: I gotta see this…
(PAUSE)
[FALL WIND AND LEAVES BLOW IN]
[LIGHT CROWD NOISE]
[LIGHT RIVER NOISE]
RAY: It’s Sunday, October 29th here in Goffstown. The fall festival is a hit! There’s over 500 people in town to see the pumpkins and the boat race.
JEFF: The weather is great. The air is crisp, and the pumpkins are massive.
RAY: They’re placing four decorated and hollowed out pumpkins in the water. Check it out: there’s the town selectman Peter Georgantas climbing in to one of the pumpkins.
JEFF: And the chief of police is climbing into another. This is pretty funny. Everyone is having a good laugh about it.
RAY: These pumpkins are awkward. They don’t exactly slice through the water like a canoe or boat would. It’s really awkward watching them paddle out to the start line on the Piscataquog River.
JEFF: Okay, the four pumpkins are in position to race about a quarter of a mile to the bridge.
[STARTING GUN]
[CROWD CHEER]
JEFF: And they’re off!
RAY: This is slow going. One of the racers is paddling too hard and causing the pumpkin to lean into the water. If he’s not careful, the pumpkin will fill up with water and the race will be over for them.
JEFF: It looks like First Selectman Peter Georgantas is finding a rhythm to the rowing. He leans a little, paddles, and then backs off.
RAY: Learning how to row a pumpkin boat is clearly not obvious. But yeah, Georgantas is starting to pull away from the pack.
JEFF: The pumpkins bob up and down as the captain paddle. The police chief is finding his rhythm now too, but I’m not sure it will be enough to overtake Georgantas.
[CROWD CHEERS SWELL]
RAY: It looks like… yes! Georgantas has won the first Pumpkin Regatta in Goffstown!
[CROWD NOISE DIES DOWN]
JEFF: The town council gaze at each other and smile. They know they have a hit. This will NOT be the last pumpkin regatta in town. And that brings us back to today.
[TRANSITION]
RAY: It was not the last pumpkin regatta. The following year in 2001, the crowd size doubled to over 1,000 people, the year after 2,000 people, and so on. It’s grown so much that it’s now a two-day event that draws in thousands of people from all over.
JEFF: This year, the 25th annual race is being held October 18 and 19, 2025 on Main Street in Goffstown. There’s vendors, crafts, food, pumpkins and more.
RAY: When something is weird and fun, it tends to stick around.
JEFF: And the pumpkins continue to get larger each year. Think about this… in the year 1857, 196 pounds was considered the largest ever. In 2023 the record holder stands at 2,749. That’s a staggering increase, with most of the growth happening since the 1970s.
RAY: Back in Episode 323 we covered the story of the Punkin’ Chuckin’ trebuchet that launched a pumpkin over a quarter of a mile. Named Yankee Siege, that machine was born and displayed in Greenfield, New Hampshire. What is it with New Hampshire and their relationship with pumpkins?
JEFF: That’s a great question. And one I don’t think we can answer. Like many other stories we cover, the Granite State’s strange use of pumpkins will have to be a mystery we leave unsolved.
[OUTTRO]
RAY: Either way, we’re grateful for New Hampshire’s weirdness. They never let us down with subjects to talk about. And that takes us to After the Legend where we take a deeper dive into this week’s story and sometimes veer off course.
JEFF: After the Legend is brought to you by our patreon patrons! We need every patron we have, and we need you too! Our patrons help us financially with our hosting, production, marketing, travel, equipment, and all of the other costs it takes to bring you two podcasts each week. It’s just $3 bucks per month. That’s like buying me and Ray half of a pumpkin spiced latte… that we’d have to split. So a quarter pumpkin spiced latte each. For that you get early ad-free access to new episodes, access to our entire archive, plus bonus episodes and content that no one else gets to hear. Just head over to patreon.com/newenglandlegends to sign up.
To see some pictures of the Goffstown Pumpkin Regatta, and a YouTube video of the race, click on the link in our episode description, or go to our website and click on Episode 411.
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We’d like to thank our sponsors, thank you so much to our patreon patrons, and our theme music is by John Judd.
Until next time remember… the bizarre is closer than you think.
Get up to see the Regatta while you can. The state is planning on removing the dam in town which creates the small reservoir where the Regatta takes place, so unfortunately it’s days are numbered, at least in it’s current location.