If you've driven your kids out to Cottonwood Forest on a Saturday in October, you already know the drill. You find a spot in the gravel lot, grab a wagon, and lose track of time somewhere between the corn box and the zip line while a stack of pumpkins waits in the truck bed for later. It's been a Williston fall fixture for close to a decade, started by John Cecil and his son Joey on land east of town.
You may have also heard, sometime in the last year, that the city was trying to shut it down.
That version of the story has circulated through Facebook comments, coffee shop conversation, and at least one recall petition against a sitting city commissioner. The City of Williston has now issued three separate public statements correcting it. If you're planning your fall visit and wondering whether the rumors have any truth to them, the answer sitting in the city's own public record is more specific than "yes" or "no," and it's worth understanding before you circle a weekend on the calendar.
The Handwritten Note That Started It
In August 2025, Cottonwood Forest posted a handwritten note announcing it would not move forward with expansion plans, would cut back on private events, and would only open to the public on weekends going forward. The Cecil family attributed the change to what they called "conflicting interests between the city and us."
That note is what set the narrative in motion. On August 7, 2025, the City of Williston issued its first public statement, acknowledging the value the pumpkin patch brings to the community and stating it had spent years working with Cecil to find solutions that would let his events continue while meeting zoning and safety requirements. According to the city, staff had offered multiple pathways since 2022, including farmers market and flea market permits, special event permits, temporary use permits, and seasonal commercial recreation uses.
On October 8, 2025, the city issued a second statement reiterating it had zero intent to close the pumpkin patch. The 2025 season went ahead as scheduled.
What Ordinance 1139 Actually Does
Here's the detail that gets lost every time this story resurfaces: the city didn't just tell Cecil no. It built him a specific tool.
Ordinance 1139 was drafted by City Planning and Zoning specifically to make seasonal attractions like Cottonwood Forest possible without requiring paved parking, a standard that would otherwise apply to a commercial venue drawing the kind of weekend traffic the patch does. According to the city's account, the ordinance was drafted with Cecil's own input and included items he had specifically requested: no paved parking requirement, fewer permits, and a clearer pathway for seasonal operations.
The city also says it explained a second option: rezoning certain parcels to Agriculture with a special use permit, which would allow uses like weddings without triggering the costly parking improvements that come with a commercial zoning designation.
Both of those routes remain available. Neither has been used to expand the venue beyond its current footprint. That's the actual friction here, not whether Cottonwood Forest can keep selling pumpkins and running the corn box on weekends (it can, and does), but whether the owner wants to build out the wedding-venue and flea-market side of the business under a framework the city says was designed with him at the table.
The Recall Petition That Missed By 43 Signatures
The zoning disagreement eventually spilled into city politics. In a conversation about rezoning requirements for the property, City Commissioner Tori Siemieniewski told Cecil, "He's never going to be happy, and he can move out of city limits if he wants anything more."
Cecil started a recall petition against her, collecting signatures throughout early 2026. By April, he had presented 1,527 signatures against a required threshold of 1,308. After review, City Administrator Shawn Wenko found the petition 43 signatures short, due to entries that were invalid or incomplete. Cecil had until April 20 to correct them. Siemieniewski withdrew from the mayoral race the same week the shortfall was announced.
Even if the signature count had cleared, the timing worked against the recall. State law prohibits holding a special election within 95 days of the next scheduled election. The earliest possible date for Cecil's special election would have landed 92 days before the November 3, 2026 general election, missing the legal cutoff by four days. The Williams County Commission denied the request on that basis in May 2026.
The Third Statement, and What It Actually Clarified
Even after the recall effort stalled, the "city is shutting it down" narrative kept resurfacing publicly enough that the city issued a third statement in January 2026, this time addressing a specific rumor: that a Planning Department memo had been circulated suggesting Cottonwood Forest could no longer operate.
The city's response was direct. The memo never said the patch couldn't operate. Its purpose was to clarify what's already allowed under current zoning and how additional activities, like longer-running vendor markets, flea markets, weddings, or multiple large events happening simultaneously, would need to be evaluated if the owner chose to pursue them.
The statement also noted that decisions about scaling back activities beyond the core pumpkin patch, including a decision to cancel school field trips the previous year, were made by the property owner and were not the result of any city action or directive.
Cecil has stayed in direct contact with the mayor, city administration, several commissioners, the city planner, and the finance director throughout this process. The city's position, repeated three times now in writing, is that it has no intent to close the pumpkin patch and never has.
What This Means If You're Planning A Fall Visit
None of this has changed what Cottonwood Forest actually offers. In recent seasons, the patch has run weekends from mid-September through October 20, with hours typically noon to 7 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. The lineup of attractions has included:
- A zip line through the property
- The corn box, a pit filled with loose corn kernels for kids to dig through
- Bale Mountain and the Tire Gym for climbing
- A sand box and Jumbo Jumper
- Pedal cars and train rides for younger kids
- A weekend haunted house that typically runs through Halloween
Because the patch's schedule shifts slightly year to year and depends on weather, your best move is to check Cottonwood Forest's own social pages closer to mid-September for this year's exact dates rather than relying on last year's calendar.
The Part Worth Remembering
The story Williston residents have been telling each other for the better part of a year, that the city is trying to run a beloved small business out of town, doesn't hold up against the city's own public record. What actually happened is closer to this: a business owner wanted to expand into weddings, flea markets, and a longer event calendar, the city drafted a zoning ordinance specifically to make that easier for him, and as of the city's most recent statement, that ordinance remains on the table and unused.
That's a less dramatic story than the one that nearly cost a commissioner her seat, but it's the one supported by the ordinance text, the permit history, and three consecutive public statements. Cottonwood Forest is not going anywhere this fall. Whether it grows into something bigger next season is a decision that, by the city's own account, has always sat with the Cecil family.
If you're already thinking about pumpkin patch weekends and Halloween costumes, you probably don't need real estate advice today. But if the changing season has you wondering what your Williston home would sell for, or you're weighing a move before the market shifts again, Carla Kemp puts together free, no-pressure home valuations whenever you're ready to look.
