Smilin’ Jack, an Enormous Jack-o’-Lantern Painted on the Side of an 80,000-Barrel Storage Tank Each Year Since 1952

“Smilin’ Jack” is the giant jack-o’lantern face painted onto a hortensphere (a squat, ellipsoidal storage tank) at the Phillips 66 refinery in Wilmington — originally the Union Oil refinery. The tank was built and completed in October 1952 when the facility was operated by the Union Oil Company of California. During its construction, the tank’s primer coat had an orange tint.

The combination of the tank’s round, squat shape and its temporary orange color led Union Oil staff to compare it to a pumpkin. An unnamed plant executive had the “brainstorm” to temporarily paint a jack-o’-lantern face on it as a surprise for the community on their daily commute. The idea was approved by the Union Oil President, Reese Taylor. Workers painted the tank with black and white paint to create the massive jack-o’-lantern face, giving birth to “Smilin’ Jack.”

The tank is enormous — commonly described as an approximately 80,000-barrel (often quoted as a “three-million-gallon” or roughly 3–3.36 million gallons) storage hortensphere — making Smilin’ Jack one of the largest jack-o’lanterns on the West Coast. (Calculation: 80,000 barrels × 42 gallons/barrel = 3,360,000 gallons.)

The painting of the tank became an annual tradition in Wilmington, repeated every Halloween season since 1952, spanning over 70 years. The painting of the massive face alone reportedly takes about 21 hours. Historically, after Halloween, the festive orange glow was replaced with gray or white paint. However, in recent years, the tank has sometimes remained orange year-round.

Smilin’ Jack has become a celebrated local celebrity, drawing thousands of people each year to view the “monster jack-o’-lantern” and take photos. The refinery often hosts drive-through events and hands out treats like caramel popcorn to the public. In 2020, to send a message of safety during the COVID-19 pandemic, Smilin’ Jack famously sported an 80-foot-wide face mask.

The Wilmington refinery complex (Phillips 66) was reported to be scheduled to close in 2025, and local coverage has raised questions about Smilin’ Jack’s future and whether the tank will be preserved when the site changes. The fate of the jack-o’lantern tank is therefore currently uncertain.