Family friendly pumpkin festival

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 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.

the pumpkin business. An added bonus was that cattle could graze in the field and eat any remaining pumpkins not selected by a customer. They discovered the potential for a pick-your-own-pumpkin operation. In 1988 Nick grew his first pumpkin crop, that was the beginning of the Buckelew Farm Pumpkin Festival. It started small — providing customers with an opportunity to take a horse-drawn wagon into a field to pick their own pumpkin. 700 people came the first year; now 35,000 customers visit during the month of October. A hundred employees, many of whom are local students, are hired each October to help with the festival activities. Buyers will be surprised to see they can choose between 30 different varieties of pumpkins.

Nick studied business at the University of Arizona. If prices for his cotton crop are bad, he thinks of other ways to make money to support the farm, including agricultural entertainment.

After attending a business conference in 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 2000, Nick expanded the Pumpkin Festival to include a giant eleven-acre corn maze. In 2004, a section was set aside as a haunted corn field. The Pumpkin Festival provides u-pick-it experience with a fair-like atmosphere.

The Festival is definitely a family operation with family members working together to make the event a success. The Buckelew’s children, Clint and Amy, have worked on the farm their entire lives and have been a big part of the Pumpkin Festival growth. They were moved into management positions with the expansion of the corn maze hours. Clint and wife Laura, along with Amy and husband Greg Owen, work together to create and build the Terror in the Corn Haunted Corn Field and also assist with the festival growth. Grandchildren Rylin and Harleigh Owen along with Luke and Owen Buckelew add their happy faces to the festivities.

The Buckelews are proud of their farming roots and of being able to share a piece of the family tradition with their customers every October. Their goal is to provide a wholesome family experience that creates lasting memories for their customers.

DO YOU WANT TO HAVE AN ‘A-MAZE-ING’ EXPERIENCE?

Visit Buckelew Farm’s “Terror in the Corn!” The maze includes props and live actors. The Buckelews have worked during the off season to create a variety of new scares! They promise to elevate the terror to the next level in the world of horror. Buckelew Farm presents the 2018 5k Zombie Mud Run! A fun mud run for all those seeking a muddy good time. Zombies have infiltrated the Buckelew Farm and it is your job as the living to escape the mud and obstacles with all your limbs (flags) intact. Walk, run, jog or drag yourself through the mud and obstacles in the team and individual noncompetitive events. New this year…. The Kiddie Zombie Mud Run! Kids under age 12 can run, walk or jog through an obstacle course approximately 1 mile long full of mud and in front of cheering fans, and a few zombies. Kids must run accompanied by an adult. Have you ever played Zombie Paint Ball?! Come out to the Farm and shoot live zombies running for their mortal lives. And join us for Corn Maze Flashlight Night.

Tickets may be purchased online at:www.buckelewfarm.com