Loren Krause checks the scales on his winning pumpkin, which came in at 297.8 pounds on Sunday. He also placed second with a 202-pound pumpkin. The giant pumpkin contest is conducted each year at the Evergreen Country Estates neighborhood on Goss Road south of Port Angeles.
Dan Welden, who started the contest 16 years ago, gives each of his neighbors special pumpkin seeds from the Northwest Giant Pumpkin Growers Association. The growing season starts in May or June and requires daily watering and lots of fertilizer.
