BUCKELEW FAMILY FARMS A FAMILY-FRIENDLY PUMPKIN FESTIVAL OFFERING A U-PICK-IT EXPERIENCE IN A FAIR-LIKE ATMOSPHERE. BY JANICE BRYSON
Are you ready to get spooked for America’s favorite holiday? Head out the Ajo Highway, west of Tucson, for a spooky Halloween celebration! Buckelew Family Farm is celebrating their 30th year of presenting a pumpkin festival that thousands of attendees enjoy each year. Activities abound for all ages – a 45-acre pumpkin patch with wagon rides, corn mazes, a Kids Zone (zip lines, pedal carts and inflatables), 4-H petting zoo, arts and crafts tent, pony ring, Zombie Paintball Shootout, and the Country Store. Nick and Laurie Buckelew are third-generation Arizona farmers. They work together with family members to bring a fabulous event, open to the public, in celebration of Halloween. The first Buckelew to arrive in Arizona was Nick’s grandfather John who arrived in the early 1900’s from Texas along with his wife Mary and their twelve children. A farm was homesteaded in Chandler where John grew alfalfa, cotton, wheat and lettuce. The farm
was lost in the 1930’s during the depression and the family moved to the Buckeye area. John’s son Robert (Bob) begin his farming career at the age of 19. John helped him lease his first farm near Buckeye. In his early years of farming, Bob leased farms in several locations in Arizona and in 1954 he leased a 1,000 acre farm at Three Points, twenty miles west of Tucson along the Ajo Highway. Bob and his wife Clara moved to the farm with their four children – Barbara, Dorothy, Nick, and Clara Lynn. When his lease was up in 1956, Bob’s hard work paid off and he was able to purchase the farm at Three Points. Bob grew cotton and wheat as well as running cattle. Clara was a member of the Arizona Cowbelles and the Cotton Wives. The couple’s son Nick grew up working with his dad on the farm. Nick graduated from the University of Arizona, as did his wife Laurie, they married in 1977. The couple moved back to the farm where Nick grew cotton and wheat. A devastating flood
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occurred in the Tucson area in 1983. It was the largest flood on record with between 10 to 13 inches of rain falling in five days. Bob decided to sell 600 acres of the farm to the City of Tucson for the water rights. Farming went well for Bob and he farmed at Three Points until his retirement. In 1986, Nick took over the day-to-day management of the farm. Bob still volunteered his time at the farm helping with the tractor work. Pima County has worked to preserve farm and ranch land and part of Buckelew Farm was included in a deal brokered with Arizona Land and Water Trust. The Trust works to preserve Southern Arizona’s vanishing western landscapes, wildlife habitat, working farms and ranches, and the waters that sustain them. Nick and Laurie are able to use the farm land and live at the property headquarters. One year, Nick and Laurie spent a large amount of money buying Halloween pumpkins for their children Clint and Amy. They decided to diversify their farming operation and began
