Melon Growers

We have three Melon growers in Green River. During harvest season (usually starting in mid/late July and lasting into October) you can pick up your melons any time from Dunham Farms or Vetere Farms by visiting their melon stands along Green River Main Street.

If you are interested in making a bulk melon purchase for your business, please use the contact information below:

Dunham Farms: (435) 820-8202 or (435) 564-8396, [email protected].
Thayn Farms: (435) 817-3280
Vetere Farms: (435) 820-0158 or (435) 820-8977,  [email protected].

History of ​
​Melon Days

Green River, Southeastern Utah’s prime melon-growing spot, is renowned as the home of the world’s best melons. Melons like sandy soil and desert climates and Green River has both in heavy supply, resulting in a happier, sweeter melon. While Green River has over 100 years of melon-growing experience starting with J.H. “Melon” Brown experimenting with his first crop, peaches were Green River’s calling card until a deep freeze in 1919 killed most of the peach trees. The farmers who stayed removed their dead trees and turned their efforts towards growing cantaloupes.

​Green River has had annual celebrations of the locally grown fruit since 1906. Now called “Melon Days,” the town has its annual celebration of its most famous export every third weekend of September. During this special time of year, truckloads of watermelons are cut up and given away to festival-goers courtesy of long time melon growing families, and Green River’s own come back to reunite with friends and family. In the recent past, at least 3,000 festival-goers have been in attendance for the Melon Days Parade and are treated to the sounds of neighboring town marching bands, the sight of creative floats made by local clubs or aspiring politicians, and a glimpse of local celebrities like the giant watermelon on wheels. The heart of the festival is the park, where one can visit food trucks and craft vendors, listen to live music, or most importantly, revel in the free melon slices donated by melon farmers. (source) 

"Green River Valley produces some of the most luscious and deliciously flavored cantaloupes in the West, and a wide demand for the fruit has developed throughout the western country. The production of cantaloupes is one of the valley's leading industries and it is fitting that a celebration be held in the height of the cantaloupe season for the entertainment of outside friends. All visitors to the city on this occasion will be made the recipients of as many cantaloupes as their appetites may crave. This is assurance that there will be a vast crowd at the celebration--for is making preparations which will be held in the big events of the be widely advertised, from over the state will who wouldn't travel a mere 100 miles or so for all the Green River cantaloupes he can eat?"

​- The Times Independent of Moab, May 25, 1925

The Watermelon Float 

The big float made its debut September 17, 1960, in the Melon Days parade. The Moab Chamber of Commerce had asked the Green River Chamber to enter a float in their parade. The idea of a melon slice came from Jim Hurst, airplane pilot and the manager of Green River's first fully operated airport. The City of Green River and American Legion Post each contributed $50.00 toward the building of the mammoth slice. 

The melon slice was at one point also used as a stand from which to sell the fruit itself,  and was designed to be motorized and self-driving.

Work on the melon slice/stand was done mainly by Sam Howland, David Wilcox, Jim Hurst, and Ernie Klaus, Jim's son-in-law. Several hundred hours were spent on construction of the World's Largest Watermelon Slice. Painting of the melon slice was done by a painter drifting through the area at that time.

On Growing Melons

The growing of watermelons and cantaloupes has proved to be a most successful and dependable crop for farmers in the Green River Valley. Green River melons are grown in a rich sand loam with a subsoil  of gravel. Combined with hot sunny days and warm nights, melons grown here develop world-class flavor.

Among the earliest melon farmers  in Green River were M. L. Stanton, H. C. Healy, L. H. Green, and John F. Brown. Brown came to town from Illinois and owned a farm south of the railroad tracks at the turn of the century. He was well-known in Utah and even across the country for growing high quality melons.

Melon grower Homer Nelson stated in an interview in 1973 that "most people give watermelons too much water. The Nelsons irrigate their crop only three or four times a season." Nelson's  main melon then was a seedless type for which he paid $200 to $300 a pound for the rare seeds that produce it. These high-priced seeds were first planted in peat pots in March or April inside of a greenhouse, along with the other varieties he grew. The seedlings were then planted in the field after danger of frost had passed. The whole family participated in this planting, with Homer driving one tractor and one of his children on the other one. The water truck would first drive along the rows, with about a cup of water deposited into the marked location of each vine. Then, a seedling is carefully planted into each patch of wet soil. This was the only irrigation the plants received for a month, thus cutting down on weed growth. 

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Thayn Farms

Dunham Farms

Vetere Farms

Nelson Farms 

Documentary Videos by Lance Robbins 

Memories & Melons Book