APPLE VALLEY, Minn-- Jack-O-Lanterns are taking over the Minnesota Zoo this month.
In honor of Halloween, the zoo has more than 5,000 pumpkins lining the trails as part of their month-long Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular.
“It’s a lot of pumpkins,” project manager Nicholas Brodeur says.
The pumpkins were brought in from several states, including Connecticut, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Michigan, and a few were even grown locally in Minnesota.
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“We have a lot of great farmers we work with,” Brodeur explains.
The company that was hired to put on the event was also brought in from out of state.
The Massachusetts-based company Passion for Pumpkins has been organizing Halloween-themed events for more than a decade.
“I’ve been doing this for 13 years now and I love it,” Brodeur says.
The theme for the event is “A Walk Through Time.”
Pumpkins will be set up along the walking trails at the zoo and will follow a chronological history of our planet.
“It starts out with the dinosaurs and ice age and then goes all the way up to 2018,” worker Travis Reckner explains.
Each section of the trail will feature a specific time period in history and will feature carvings of famous individuals, artifacts and moments that are unique to that time.
The event opens every night at 7 p.m.
Zoo managers say the animal displays will be closed each night, because the animals will be sleeping.
The event runs through Halloween.
Tickets are available online at the Minnesota Zoo's site.