Pumpkins have appeared at top of Plymouth State University building for decades, but how?

PLYMOUTH, N.H. — It's a seasonal mystery that has made its appearance every autumn since 1975. 

And this year is no different. Except this year, when the two pumpkins topped the spires of Rounds Hall on the campus of Plymouth State University, one was painted "1975" and the other "2025" to mark the 50th year of the tradition.

The pumpkins pop up there under the cover of darkness, and in all these years, the secret of how they get up there remains a mystery, and no one is willing to divulge it.

"You'll go into your class, your professor will talk about it, other students will. Then the first thing you do once you get out of class is walk by to see them up there," student Lauren Bartnicki said.

Ann Thurston was a student at Plymouth State in the early days of the pumpkins. She worked at the school for 40 years and has since retired, but still does not have the answer.

"Every time I come into town, I look up because you never know what day they're going to show up," Thurston said.

NH Chronicle asked Thurston if she wants to know how they get up there, and she quickly replied, "I don't, I don't. Part of the tradition is that it's a mystery."

There are rumors of a secret "Great Pumpkin Society." The university has a photograph of the first crowning of Rounds Hall with a single pumpkin on one spire. Also, in a photograph from 1976, the unnamed members apparently wrote, "The Great Pumpkin Spirit of '76."

Plymouth State University also showed NH Chronicle a photo of an original Great Pumpkin Society flag with a pumpkin patched onto a dark-fabric pendant.

Over the years, the pumpkins have appeared with faces painted on them, and after Sept. 11, 2001, the tower on campus honored the twin towers with two pumpkins stacked on each spire and an American flag topping them all.

And after all this time, only the keepers of the secret know how, including Louise McCormack.

McCormack, a Plymouth native and Plymouth State graduate, was a professor and tennis coach and once served as president of the Plymouth Historical Society.

She admits to holding the secret, but she is not cracking under the pumpkin pressure, saying, "No, no, no one in my family knows it. They're close to my heart, but no."

She led NH Chronicle up several flights inside Rounds Hall to a locked door and said we could not proceed further. She was clearly playing with our curiosity.

McCormack was willing, however, to share a photo she snapped of cryptic signatures in the rafters of Rounds Hall — perhaps from the secret Great Pumpkin Society.

Across campus, in the meteorology school, student Jacob Garside is learning to forecast a lot of scientific things, but he cannot predict when the pumpkins will dot the horizon.

"We can't see exactly when it happens," he said. "Somebody always mysteriously cuts the camera right when it happens, but in the morning, there's like an hour missing, and you'll be able to see the pumpkins just appear, which is really cool."

That camera he is talking about is a WMUR weather camera focused on the campus, with Rounds Hall and the pumpkins in the center of the frame.

Each and every year, we also wait for the sun to come up, revealing the pumpkins have returned and announcing it to our viewers.

Back to pumpkin secret-holder McCormack. She rattled off possibilities, "Did we have drones? Did we climb up there somehow and do it? Maybe we had a helicopter?"

Then, she covered her mouth with both hands and giggled.

"I honor what has been done here over time, and I would keep this till I go to my grave. It should remain a secret," McCormack said.