HISTORY OF GREEN RIVER MELON DAYS

Melon Grower Brown was one of the earliest melon planters in Green River. He had a small farm on the east side of the river referred to now by old timers as the 'Ink Harris' place. Long before a bridge spanned the Green River, people were fording the river to go to 'Melon Grower' Brown's place to eat melons and visit. This may have been the forerunner of today's Melon Day celebration.

Local legend has it that many years ago a man came across a volunteer melon vine growing far from any cultivated land. He tasted a melon from this vine and was so pleased with its flavor and texture that he saved the seeds. From them came Green River's famous round white watermelon with its amazing keeping qualities. Green River's hot days and cool nights contribute a high sugar content to the melons which results in their delicious and unexcelled flavor.

In the early 1900's, many peach tree ranches were established. Melons were planted between the rows of trees as a secondary crop, and soon a few carload lots of melons were shipped on the old D & RG narrow guage railroad. In 1910, a wagon bridge was built across the Green river to replace the ferry, and when this new bridge was dedicated, melons were served as an important part of the celebration. In 1916, an extraordinarily hard freeze gripped the area, freezing all the peach trees. The crack and snap of the peach tree limbs sounded like rifle fire. Many farmers and ranchers moved away, and melon production slowed to a crawl.

Melon Days was first celebrated in a big way in the 1920', when the old timers tell of special trains running to bring people in for Green River Melon Days, which was attended on time by the Governor of the state. The people built bowers out of cottonwood trees, where they sold their concessions. Melon Day celebrations ended during the depression period, but the melon business actually boomed during that time. The Wilson Produce Company, in 1929, had recently purchased the land under the Forty-Two lift.

They started to grow several hundred acres of cantaloupe along with other farmers in the valley. The Wilson Produce Company leased the old railroad roundhouse and converted it into a packing and loading shed.

The melons were picked, hauled to the shed, sorted, packed and loaded into iced railroad cars, with the operation ending in the early hours of the morning. At first, the melons were picked part green and ripened on the way to market. The last few years the melons were picked ripe and sprayed with a wax film, and shipped in refrigerator cars. The melon crates were labeled with a picture of Gunnison Butte and the peaceful flow of the old Green River, which was the trademark of the Wilson Produce Company.

These cantaloupes were shipped as far east as New York and Boston. The commanded the highest price on the market, as they were the famous melons that had taken first place at the Chicago World Fair. As high as 336 carloads of melons were shipped in just one year during this era.

There were other packing companies that came into Green River to raise melons. Some rented ground and grew their own, and others contracted grown by local farmers. The Rits Packing Company packed melons for several years at the old fruit growers shed, which the farmers used to pack and ship the valley's apple crop. None of the operations that came in were very successful and most stayed only a few years. Wilson Produce also stopped shipping melons in 1953, when freight rates became too high to make it a profitable business. That was the last of the shipping by rail. In the 1950's and 1960's, some watermelons and cantaloupes have been shipped out via truck, but never in great quantities.

It was not until after the Legion Post #103 was organized after World War II that Melon Days was revived as a regular celebration. Many legioneers grew and donated melons for the occasion. It then became a yearly celebration with a parade, a Melon Queen, boat racing, rodeo, and dance as well as many other attractions. In 1967 the Melon Days became a community affair, revived by a few civic minded people who knew that even though the acres of melons grown are few, the quality of the Green River melons is still the best.