Farmington man welcomes public to his display with hundreds of carved pumpkins

FARMINGTON — If Johnny Depp ever wants to see what a carving of Jack Sparrow looks like on the front of a pumpkin, he can make his way to Davis County.

Each October, Ken Klinker of Farmington displays so many real and foam pumpkins with intricate carvings that you would have to see to believe. For the last 20 years, plenty of eyes have stopped by his front yard to see for themselves.

"It really makes me happy to see people come to the display and be surprised by what they see. There's something for everybody, too." Klinker said. "Patriotic symbols, Disney characters, sports logos and some optical illusions — my favorites — I have carved them all for the public to see."

As a child raised in Wyoming and Alaska, Klinker and his family regularly went to pumpkin patches, returning home to carve their gourds and revel in their handiwork. Two decades ago, he started carving designs on pumpkins and displaying them in front of his workplaces. They were so popular he carved more and more with intricate designs, eventually mixing real pumpkins with foam pumpkins — "so I did not have to spend five or six hours carving to only throw all the pumpkins away in November," he said.

As much as Klinker knows the public enjoys seeing his work, he also loves the challenge of finding designs on the internet and bringing them to pumpkin life. These challenging designs take considerably longer — up to two days — but to see the completed product is the benefit.

Being an intricate-design pumpkin carver has brought him a lot of attention, but nothing like the support he provides other carvers. He and his friend "Stoney" moderate a pumpkin carvers' Facebook page, with slightly more than 18,000 members, where they provide advice and tool discussions. The page was so popular that in 2021, Facebook executives had Klinker and Stoney come to the campus in Menlo Park, California, to act in a commercial.

All these carving hours and attention have had an impact on Ken and his wife's time together during many Octobers. His wife does miss him, but she has found ways to be a part of her husband's escapades. She offers her opinions on carvings and provides suggestions about better ways to display the pumpkins.

"When we were dating, she would come to my house and while we were watching a baseball game, I was there carving a pumpkin with pumpkin meat on the floor," Klinker said with a laugh at the memory. "She still married me! She feels like a pumpkin widow, but she has gotten more involved over the years. That's been nice."

Klinker has used October to give back to his county. He is asking visitors to the pumpkin display to bring nonperishable food items that he will donate to the Bountiful Food Pantry. People have donated enough food for multiple trips to the pantry, something not too surprising to those who advocate for food security in Utah.

"What this tells us is he is aware of what's going on in his community," said Gina Cornia, executive director of Uthans Against Hunger. "A lot of food donations are needed ... the pantries have seen a large increase in need. A lot of folks in different communities do these interesting types of events and food drives. (Klinker) is paying enough attention to see people need help."

Despite the popularity of the carved pumpkin display, Klinker has never had any desire to charge the public to enter his front yard. Some people would not be able to come if he charged, he said. For a man who is mostly interested in the public seeing as many carved pumpkins as possible, limiting the number of people who visit is not what he is interested in.

Besides, seeing different people of all ages marvel at the display and overhearing their conversations makes all this work worthwhile.

"Once I heard a pair of parents say to their little kids, 'Remember, after the pumpkins it really will be bedtime.' I thought that was great," he said. "I like visiting with everyone, too. They tell me what images I'm missing and ask how I do all these carvings. With an X-acto knife and a dremel! I like to invite people to come take a look and have fun with their families. It's fun for me, too."

Related topics