HALF MOON BAY, Calif. -- A journey halfway across America paid off in a big way for an Iowa farmer early Monday when his 1,658-pound gourd captured the title at the annual Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival.

Don Young, of Des Moines, Iowa, topped a field of 80 entrants mostly from California and the Pacific Northwest to collect nearly $10,000 in prize money. However, he fell just short in his efforts to beat the new world record of 1,725 set a week ago in Ohio.

“I was thinking it was in the mid-1600s, maybe 1700,” Young said as he stood by his pumpkin waiting for it to be weighed. “The scale will tell…When they get big and thick they are all contenders. This one just seems extraordinary.”

And it did. His gourd stood 5-feet-4 tall, weighed 1,658 pounds and had a 14-foot circumference. The pumpkin did set a new weight record for California. Contest spokesman Tim Beeman said the old state record was 1,535 pounds.

When asked his secret, the Iowa farmer said he approached growing massive pumpkins like a horse breeder.

“A lot of it is genetics,” he said. “It’s a lot like horse racing – we are breeding them, we are crossing them,” he said. “When you are trying to come up with a big pumpkin, you are taking a heavy pumpkin and crossing it with a long pumpkin to come up with a big, long pumpkin.”

To keep the pumpkin fresh for the days of driving to California, he kept a wet blanket over the pumpkin and left its four vines soaking in bags of water.

Young's pumpkin weighed down his red pickup truck, which boasted the license plate "BIGPMKN," shuddered when a forklift removed the pumpkin from the back just before it was weighed.

Asked why he chose to travel so far to the Half Moon Bay festival -- located 30 miles south of San Francisco -- Young said he wanted to go against the best.

“I wanted to come and see some of the best growers in the world,” he said. “To see if we can compete with them. There is not as many weigh-offs in the Midwest… We weighed in one at 1,622 [pounds] last week.”

Young also was quick to say he didn’t use any artificial stimulants to grow the massive pumpkin.

“It’s all organic,” he said. “I use a lot of compost tea – fish, seaweed – everything,” he said.

The second-place winner was Leonardo Urena, of Napa, who had a 1,470-pound pumpkin. Third place went to Ron Root, of Citrus Heights, Calif., who grew a 1,247-pound pumpkin. Another Napa resident, Pete Glasier, took fourth place with a 1,174-pound pumpkin.

Young’s prize-winning squash, along with the other top five biggest pumpkins, will be displayed during the Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival, held this weekend on the city's historic Main Street.

Half Moon Bay holds the festival as the World Pumpkin Capital, producing more than 3,000 tons of pumpkins ever year and shipping them around the world.

Information about the festival is available by calling (650) 726-9652 or online at www.miramarevents.com. Admission is free.