Earliest Pumpkin Distance Contest?

Factual Questions
1

This weekend is the 18th Annual “World Championship” Punkin Chunkin competition in Sussex County Delaware. Last year’s record was 4,434 feet, set by a Delawarean team. However, I found a Wall Street Journal article that states that the World Record is held by an Illinois cannon (“The Aludium Q-36 Pumpkin Modulator”) – 4,491 feet! – and that record was set in Illinois back in 1998.

As a Delawarean, I’m willing to recognize non-competition firings as legitimate; however, a co-worker today scoffed at my plans to attend this weekend, saying that Ohio and Indiana have had contests like this “for years.” I can’t very well holler “CITE???” at him, so I’ll holler it here. The Delaware contest has been going on since 1986, so:

(10 pts.) Can you show me any record of prior art in the field of machine-assisted pumpkin tossing for distance? November of 1986 was the first recorded Delaware contest.

(BONUS - 100 pts.) Can you quantify the advantage a team gains from firing in Illinois’ rarefied air (720 ft) vice firing in Delaware (52 feet above sea level)?

2

Here is the website for the Morton, Illinois Pumpkin festival, which has featured Punkin’ Chuckin’ since as early as 1997, possibly earlier. The website is difficult to navigate and short on information, but I do see an “ask us” link on there, so have at it.

FWIW, I saw a program on The Discovery Channel about this. It seems that the participants in the Delaware event consider the Delaware event the “official” pumpkin-launching event, and the Illinois event a minor-league copycat; vice-versa for the Illinois event.