It was a day for the record books of two bordering states at Washington Historic State Park’s annual Watermelon Weigh-off Saturday morning as contestants from Mississippi and Missouri broke state records.
The weigh-off happened as the park’s weekly farmer’s market took place around the pavilion just in front of Williams Tavern Restaurant. Many shopped for fruits, vegetables, jellies and jams as judges carefully inspected an assortment of watermelons, cantaloupes, squash and pumpkins brought from all over the region.
After meticulous measurements of each fruit or veggie entrant, their weights began to be measured. For the 200-plus pounders, it would take four men to bring the melons over to the scale, each holding the handles of a thick cloth on which the melons were displayed.
Over a dozen items would be weighed. As each melon was set on the scales, many photographers scrambled to get closer to the action when the growers briefly posed behind their harvests.
When all was finished, the winners were announced. In first place was R.C. Vaughn of Coffeeville, Mississippi, who grew a 270.8-pound specimen in soil he said had been fertilized by horse manure. He broke his state’s record. When asked his reaction, Vaughn said, “Oh, I’m as happy as I could be—yeah. I drove a long way to get here. It’s not but 93 days old. If I could have left it on a little longer, it would have been a whole lot bigger.”
He said that growing big watermelons is “all about the dirt.” He described his choice of fertilizer as horse manure and said he did soil tests and sent in soil samples to make sure all was right. He added that he also had a watering system, weed guards and a cover to place over the melon as it was growing. He also visited the melon several times a day to help ward off raccoons.
The second place grower, with a melon that weighed in at 262.7 pounds was Kenny Crawford of Hornersville, Missouri. He also broke Missouri’s record for heaviest watermelon.
Third place went to Garrin Bratcher of Rush Springs, Oklahoma, whose watermelon was 224.6 pounds. Prizes of $600 for first, $400 for second and $300 for third were awarded on the spot.
Arkansas-connected entrants were Lloyd Bright (116.7 pounds) of Arkadelphia and Barbara Bright Jones (153.4) of Bossier City. Lloyd Bright broke the record for the heaviest watermelon in 2005 with a 268.8 pounder and grew several record-breakers with his father Ivan in the years prior.
The event was hosted by Josh Williams, the parks’ curator.
