Durham-themed pumpkins

If you’ve followed my website in previous fall seasons, you’ll know that I am an enthusiastic pumpkin carver (see, for example, the 2010 and 2009 lab pumpkin party pumpkins). This year I got a special request for an early pumpkin. My father is involved in starting a history museum in Durham, North Carolina called the Museum of Durham History. As a way to promote the museum, they are having a Carve Durham contest to see who can make the best Durham-themed Jack-o-Lantern. To help out with some examples that they could advertise in advance of the contest, I carved a historic mill at West Point on the Eno, and the neon sign from a beloved local diner. Of course they’ve already gone completely rotten. Not sure yet what I’ll carve next.