Missoula Mystery Pumpkin Returns to Main Hall at University of Montana
Some traditions come with a ribbon-cutting and a printed schedule. This one comes with a pumpkin on a very tall spire and nobody willing to take credit. I love that a gourd on a roof can still get a whole campus pointing at the sky.
The pumpkin is back on top of Main Hall at the University of Montana in Missoula. Visit Missoula shared the news on Facebook, noting that a pumpkin has mysteriously appeared every fall since 1995. NBC Montana’s Homecoming week story treated it as the unofficial starting gun for the festivities: a pumpkin on Main Hall means Homecoming is here. Last year, NBC Montana and UPI both called it the 30th year, which makes this the 31st.
Main Hall Pumpkin Tradition Started in Missoula in 1995
The timing is part of the legend. The Griz won their first FCS national championship in 1995, and NBC Montana reports that the same fall a pumpkin was spotted on the Main Hall spire for the first time.
The university was not amused. According to the Montana Kaimin’s 2023 look back, campus officials were furious, and the director of campus security at the time wondered aloud whether anyone could lift fingerprints from a pumpkin. Getting it down was a different problem. The Kaimin’s 2017 history of the prank says Facility Services priced out a crane at $110 an hour, but Main Hall was not suited for one. So the pumpkin stayed. A student who spotted it his freshman year told the Kaimin it was still up there when he came back for summer school.
The next fall, the pumpkin showed up a week later than security expected, and this time the spiker put pumpkins on two other spires, too.
University of Montana Went From Furious to Featuring the Pumpkin
My favorite part of this story is how much the university’s attitude has changed. The Kaimin reports that UM was using the pumpkin in its own marketing materials as early as 2021, although it officially does not condone vandalism. The university’s campus traditions blog now lists the pumpkin right alongside Homecoming and the Foresters’ Ball, while noting that university officials never approved it.
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The tradition has had real consequences for the people behind it. In 2016, a UM student named Peter Breigenzer was caught on October 27 and arrested on two misdemeanor charges: criminal trespassing and obstruction of a peace officer. The Kaimin reports he speared the pumpkin before he surrendered. A source close to him later told the paper that the charges were reduced and he was sentenced to community service.
Missoula Climbers Keep the Main Hall Pumpkin Mystery Alive
The people behind the tradition have always stayed anonymous, though the rumor has long pointed to Missoula’s rock climbing community. Last year, an anonymous climber spoke with NBC Montana and described a full operation: lookouts spread across campus in the middle of the night, radios and group texts, and a green roof that gets slippery when condensation settles in on a fall night.
The climber also said the university has hired outside help to put the pumpkin up safely, which hasn’t ended the competition. In the climber’s words, “being climbers we still try to race them to do it first.”
The danger is real, and the people who have talked about it say so. A climber told the Kaimin in 2017 that the building has no way to anchor a partner, and that “if you fall, you’re going to hit the ground.” The roof is not open to visitors, so the best view is from the ground, looking up from the Oval.
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Gallery Credit: Chris Wolfe