Pumpkin Catapult Contests

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The ingenious contraptions included outsize crossbows, pneumatic cannons, three-story slingshots, and V8-engine-powered centrifuges. In the Chunk, explosives are prohibited.

"Harry and I were instantly hooked," Gerow recalls. "We called our wives and told them that we wouldn't make it back home that night. We stayed through the weekend."

With the support of friends and other fans of things-that-go-splat, Brown and Gerow set about perfecting their own catapult. Prince Valiant won the inaugural Adult Trebuchet face-off in 2000. The contraption's 487-foot fling outpaced its closest rival by 35 feet.

In 2001 Gerow designed King Arthur, whose 643-foot blast was some 150 feet longer than the second-place finisher.

"We tested out prototypes on Harry's 570 acres," he says. "We'd go through as many as 40 pumpkins a day." King Arthur was not, Gerow insists, inspired by the Holstein-slinging catapult in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

The next year, he and Brown faced a stiffer challenge in Punkin Hammer. The Maryland-based contrivance was powered by a 2,500-pound falling weight six times as heavy as King Arthur's. Still, King remained king, establishing a new divisional record of 927 feet.

King Arthur again finished at the top of its class in 2003, breaking the 1,000-foot barrier by 150 feet. The following fall saw the arrival of Yankee Siege, the world's heaviest (anchored by a 5 1/2-ton counterweight) and tallest (70 feet high, including throwing arm) mechanical trebuchet.

The gravity-fed rookie from New Hampshire propelled a pumpkin 1,394 feet, eclipsing Punkin Hammer by more than three yards. King Arthur, at 1,133 feet, had to settle for third. (That same year, Old Glory, an air-powered cannon, set the course record of 4,224 feet).

Ever since then, King Arthur has placed second to Yankee Siege. Pushed by a robust tailwind, Yankee Siege set the trebuchet standard (1,684 feet) in 2005. Brown had prepped King Arthur for the showdown by using it to launch watermelons at an Independence Day party on his spread.

This fall, Gerow plans to unveil Merlin, the grand wizard of trebuchets. "All I can say is ‘Wow!'" Gerow says.

"At the 2008 Punkin Chunk, I'm dedicating every chunk to Harry."

Happily, Harry Brown's body will not lie a'moldering in his grave. Some of his ashes have already been scattered by skyrocket. Merlin may well take care of the rest.

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