“Trick or Treat time in Pumpkinville”

By

Gerry Niskern

All the kids in Pumpkinville are busy gearing up for the big night. They have been busy discussing and planning their choice of costume for a couple of months now. After all, you have to think ahead about life’s more important decisions.

For all you newcomers out there who are wondering where Pumpkinville is, Phoenix was originally known as Pumpkinville for the first years of its existence. The first pioneers found pumpkins growing profusely along all the canal banks in the valley.

Who planted these all those pumpkin vines? Well, Jack Swilling, of course. Who was Jack Swilling? Settle back, and let me tell you about Jack and then you can pass along a little of the valley’s history to your munchkins who are getting ready for Halloween.

Jack Swilling arrived in the valley around 1867. He was an Indian fighter, deserter from the Confederate Army, and most of all, a visionary. He was fascinated with the ancient Hohokam (the Pima word for “people who have gone before”) ruins, especially the extensive network of canals the ancient Indians had dug to irrigate their fields. Swilling realized the farmers could use the canals. He and his partner began clearing and rebuilding the long-abandoned irrigation canals of the Hohokam.

Within a short time Salt River water was flowing in the canals. The farmers were growing barley, alfalfa and other crops. Jack Swilling planted pumpkins everywhere he worked. That lead to the settlement being called Pumpkinville, approximately around 1870.

The pumpkins that grew along the canal banks provided a great supply of Jack-o-Lanterns for the pioneer kids.

Halloween night, dating back to around A.D. 830 when Pope Gregory 1V proclaimed No 1 All Saints’ day, has by tradition been a kids night for fun.

If Halloween was celebrated at all in Pumpkinville, it was most likely a social event for the whole family; an excuse for singles parties and courting. You could hear the sound of guitars and fiddles coming from parlors around town. If there were any Irish families around the kids could count on hearing some scary ghost stories to fit the occasion.

Most children of early Phoenix were far removed from goblins, trolls and spirits in European ghost tales. Who cared about gnomes when rattlesnakes, coyotes, when real bobcats padded nearby? Fear of Halloween witches also gave way to real life encounters with small bands of renegade Apaches.

Now, this October in Pumpkinville the kids can choose their pumpkins from stacks in corner lots around town. On the other hand, they might get a trip to one of the “Pumpkin Patches” around the valley to pick their own.

That brings us back to the costume dilemma..

Here’s an idea. How about dressing them up like Indian Fighter, Jack Swilley?