Minnesotan Wins Pumpkin Weigh-Off with Monstrous Gourd

A 35-hour drive to California seems to have paid off for one Minnesota pumpkin grower after they won the 51st World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-Off.

The yearly competition is held in Moon Bay, California, which is just south of San Francisco, and using forklifts and specially designed harnesses, the giant pumpkins are placed on a 5-ton scale to determine the winner.

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The winning pumpkin gets prize money equal to $9 per pound, and any pumpkin that breaks the current world record would get a prize of $30,000, and that's what this year's winner took home last year.

Travis Gienger, a horticulture teacher from Anoka, Minnesota, which just happens to be the Halloween Capital of the World, won last year with a world record pumpkin weighting in at 2,749 pounds, he fell just short of that weight this year, but it was still just enough to win.

Gienger's pumpkin weighted in at 2,471 pounds this year, just 6 pounds heavier than the second place pumpkin. Along with the cash prize of $22,239, Gienger also gets the Pumpkin King championship ring, a Growers Jacket, and gets to be the grandmaster of the Great Pumpkin Parade.

This is the fourth time that Gienger has won the competition, the next stop for the pumpkin is Southern California where some professional pumpkin carvers will turn the gourd into a 3D sculpture for an upcoming Halloween event.

Another $15,000 was given away to the rest of the top 10 list, and several other special prizes, including $500 for the "most beautiful pumpkin."