Pumpkin riots of 1923

The Pumpkin Riots of 1923

The Pumpkin Riots of 1923 were a four-day outbreak of violence and looting
in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. They began in the town's Falls Park on October
16, before spilling out into the main commercial district and surrounding
lower-class neighborhoods, and ended on October 19.

Tension among the town's residents had been escalating for several months
over the threat of a pumpkin shortage due to inhospitable weather conditions
in the Great Plains prairie regions. The region had only begun to recover
from a severe plague of grasshoppers two decades prior.

There is dispute over how the unrest began. One common version is that the
riots began on the evening of October 16 after a young boy named Patrick
Stanton stole a pumpkin from a vendor at a farmer's market in Falls Park,
located just north of downtown alongside the Big Sioux River. Stanton was
purportedly bringing home the pumpkin to his sick mother, Martha, who was
suffering from tuberculosis. At the sight of the young boy running away with
the pumpkins, other residents followed suit, operating under the assumption
that the farmer's market was running out of usable gourds, and so absconding
with the pumpkins before none were left. Other versions contend the myth of
Stanton was invented by citizens after the riots, in an effort to make sense
of the events for young children.

The riots spread from Falls Park into the town's warehouse and meatpacking
districts, both of which suffered disastrous fire damage as mobs took to the
streets in protest. The Morrell meatpacking plant and nearby stockyards were
completely destroyed.

Five people died in the riots, 28 people were reported injured, hundreds
were arrested, and countless local businesses were forced to shut down from
the looting and irreparable fire damage.

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