Dartmouth Kids Build Obscenely Tall Bonfire On Campus
Dartmouth students may have an abysmal 0-5 football squad this year, but they do have a killer mascot, an amazing beer pong scene, and – most gloriously – a tradition of building obscenely tall bonfires in the center of the Green. The blaze-fest dates back to 1888, after Dartmouth beat Manchester College in baseball. According to The Dartmouth, the bonfire “disturbed the slumbers of a peaceful town, destroyed some property, made the boys feel that they were men, and, in fact, did no one any good.”
Even after the bonfire gained recognition by the school’s administrators, students had trouble finding suitable material to burn. As an article on Dartmouth’s website explains:
Until more recent times, gathering wood for the bonfire was a challenge. As the Dartmouth reported on May 11, 1918, ‘Those too zealous in their efforts laid violent hands upon sundry front door steps and backdoor steps, and likewise fences, not to mention numerous hen houses carried ‘en masse’ to the scene of the celebration.’
It’s somewhat difficult to parse the aforementioned quote, since it was written nearly a century before, but basically it’s saying that some good ‘ol Dartmouth boys – likely drunk on moonshine – tore apart wooden stairs, picketed fences, etc., and festively carried them to the location of the bonfire.
More on the history of the bonfire and a video of 2008’s conflagration, which happened over homecoming weekend last Friday, after the jump.
These days, in line with infantilizing measures taken by higher education administrators across the nation, everything – the combustibles and design of the bonfire structure itself – is tightly regulated. According to The Dartmouth,
The Thayer School of Engineering supplies the current design, which is designed so that it can only collapse inward. Dartmouth also custom orders the wood to fit non-treated, square-cut specifications so that no longer do freshmen builders wander around campus to find scrap wood… For additional safety issues, the freshman builders… are monitored by a professional construction crew…. [and] students must stay outside of the danger area, marked off by white paint on the ground.
Kind of a buzzkill, but at least this prevents kids from being immolated to death, which I think most would agree is a good thing.
The structure
Freshmen running around the bonfire
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YouTube footage of the 2008 incarnation
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October 26th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
pretty sweet — way to go dmouth.
October 26th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
i like to think of it as ritualized acceptable hazing, since the upperclassmen (read: drunk frat brothers) tend to harass the freshmen as they do their run.
October 26th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Basically the whole idea for upperclassmen is to try and get 100% of the ’12s to run in the opposite direction. We’ve have been trying, but failing, to do so for 100 years.
October 26th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
0-6 now.
October 26th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
Along the same lines as d11, I like to think of it as institutionalized psychological warfare, with upperclassmen telling freshmen that they are the worst class ever and screaming at them to touch the fire. Our freshman are feisty–I’ve heard some interesting homecoming stories, in which
- after having punched the same ‘12 every run round the fire, an upperclasswoman of my acquaintance was punched herself
- another group of upperclassmen were maced by some ‘12 girl
- a kid who accidentally punched an S&S officer and was thereafter arrested
More here:
http://thedartmouth.com/2008/10/20/news/burns/
“Homecoming brings arrests, severe burns”
October 26th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
What’s Manchester College?
October 27th, 2008 at 12:44 am
cheers! big fires are the best!
but, ahem, let’s try to avoid another of these ( http://bonfire.tamu.edu/), shall we?
October 27th, 2008 at 9:14 am
Speaking from experience, it’s actually not that fun to run around the bonfire. It’s extremely hot (though thankfully it started to rain during my year) and hard to run around because there are so many people in the way at the beginning. Things easily get lost too. One of my friend’s lost a flip flop (though that’s her fault; your UGAs warn you not to swear flip flops) and another lost her camera.
October 27th, 2008 at 9:59 am
rain? please. my year the sky opened up into a snowstorm as we rounded the green from the freshman sweep. one half of my body was scorched and on the other side my hair was in icicles. it was glorious.
October 27th, 2008 at 11:25 pm
Someone please haze some ‘cool’ into ‘hmm.’ Thanks.
October 28th, 2008 at 6:05 am
this is fucking ivy gate..
this thransaltion:
It’s somewhat difficult to parse the aforementioned quote, since it was written nearly a century before, but basically it’s saying that some good ‘ol Dartmouth boys – likely drunk on moonshine – tore apart wooden stairs, picketed fences, etc., and festively carried them to the location of the bonfire.
really shouldn’t exist.
set it up please?!
October 28th, 2008 at 6:07 am
*step..
November 1st, 2008 at 8:45 am
I think they managed to fit Dartmouth’s entire freshman class in that shot.
October 21st, 2009 at 9:26 pm
My favorite late ’70s/early ’80s bonfire classic involved some sadistic Cabin & Trail members wearing ski masks who buzzed ’shmen guarding the bonfire overnight with de-fanged chainsaws. The ’shmen shat themselves, the C&T-ers got suspended. Lest the old traditions fail!!!