Ninety-nine years ago College President William Jewett Tucker welcomed the Class of 1899 to the first Dartmouth Night, held in Dartmouth Hall.
Those past 99 years were marked by fire and by fiery controversy, by endless speeches and heated protests.
The first bonfire followed a baseball victory against Manchester in 1888 when students torched anything they could find in Hanover.
The blaze wasn't received well by everyone, and an editorial in The Dartmouth proclaimed, "It 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." But the tradition continued.
The first organized construction of the bonfire came in 1893, following a football victory over Amherst. For many years after that, bonfires were built after football victories. Anything burnable in Hanover, including residents' fence posts, which were used for fuel.
It was not until seven years after the first bonfire, on September 17, 1895, that the first Dartmouth Night -- an idea of then College President William Jewett Tucker -- was held in Dartmouth Hall. Tucker said the event would "promote class spirit and would initiate freshmen into the community."
Apparently student opinion had changed over seven years, as The Dartmouth, in a September, 1895 article, called the first Dartmouth Night, "One of the most delightful and interesting events which the undergraduate body has had the honor of participating in."
The next year at the second Dartmouth Night, "Men of Dartmouth," written by Richard Hovey '85, was chosen as the official College song.
Webster Hall hosted subsequent Dartmouth Nights which became formal events that featured a distinguished speaker and lengthy addresses from alumni.
The speeches, while still sometimes lengthy, are now held in front of Dartmouth Hall.
Freshmen began running around the fire in 1914 when Winston Churchill visited the event.
Memorial Field was officially presented in 1923, with the Memorial Arch dedicated to the 112 Dartmouth men who were killed in World War I, which was at that time simply called "the great war."
World War II took its effect on Dartmouth Night as well. In 1943 a dwindling student body forced a scale back of the event.Wartime restrictions precluded the still traditional reading of telegrams from alumni around the world.
Dartmouth Night was held every year until 1967 when lack of interest resulted in its cancellation until 1972.
Freshmen were previously required to wear beanies, but in the 1950s, Dartmouth Night provided a chance for freshmen to remove the green caps.
A tug of war between the sophomore and fresmen classes gave the freshmen an opportunity -- if victorious -- to shed the beanies.
The bonfire tradition blossomed in the 1950s when an alum who owned a railroad company in Portland, Maine, offered free railroad ties, but only to students who would pick them up.
Busloads of students made the trip, and bonfires were held at every football game.
It was also in the 50sthat builders adopted the currently used hexagonal design and railroad ties were first used.
Another staple of Dartmouth Nights of old were the presence of hundreds of women on campus who came from far and wide to provide dates for the all-male student body.
The old Sigma Phi Epsilon house would serve as a temporary hotel for students' dates. The administration made a special exception called, "late hour dorm privileges" for the weekend that allowed the visiting women to be in the dorms until 7 p.m. on Friday night and midnight on Saturday.
A 1953 Dartmouth Night headline summed up the entire weekend with "Babes, Balloons, Blasts, and Bonfire."
One year the student government president assured the visiting alumni that "on the part of the undergraduates, the Dartmouth spirit of manhood, by manhood, and for manhood should not perish from the earth."
The bonfire in 1954 was canceled because of a hurricane. The local fire department called off the event in 1963 during a dry spell.
But the weather was not the only obstacle to a successful fire, as sabotage by upperclassmen is also a long tradition.
In 1968, upperclass Dartmouth Outing Club members replaced the freshmen's kerosene with water. When the fire did not light, the prank was confessed and the fire went on as scheduled.
Three years later, a local farmer donated his old barn to fuelthe fire. But students went to the wrong barn and, finding so much wood to burn inside it, left the barn standing.
An irate farmer arrived at the Green two days later with Hanover Police officers.
In the 1980s, controversy and change enveloped the tradition.
A bomb scare in 1982 forced the Class of 1986's bonfire to be disassembled with a cherry picker. Nothing was found.
In 1984, a town ordinance prohibited the Class of 1988 from building a bonfire with as many tiers as their class numerals. The height was limited to 60 feet.
That tradition was restored, in a way, last year when the Class of 1997 added about 30 very small tiers to the top of their structure.
In 1987, eight or nine women calling themselves Womyn to Overthrow Darmyth and the Wimmin's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell, protested at Dartmouth Night.
The protesters, dressed as witches with skulls painted on their faces, threw red hard-boiled eggs in front of the speaker's podium.
In 1988, safer and more environmentally friendly cut lumber replaced the creosote soaked railroad ties.
Unfortunately, the new wood did not burn as well and the students awoke the next morning to find the charred structure still standing. Another protest followed in 1991 in resonse to the College's ban on common source alcohol like kegs. Members of the Class of '95 handcuffed themselves to the bonfire and shouted "We want kegs! We want kegs!"
While the Class of 1996 was building their bonfire in 1992, the tradition of the freshmen guarding the structure from upperclassmen turned violent and a late night riot ensued on the Green, involving approximately 600 students.
Construction on the structure was suspended for a full day while administrators debated the future of the tradition.
Although the fire was lit as scheduled for Dartmouth Night, it was considerably smaller than many of its predecessors.
To prevent a recurrence, the College changed the delivery date of the bonfire's wood, giving students fewer days to erect the structure.
This year, Dean of the College Lee Pelton issued a warning that any misbehavior during homecoming events could lead to the cancellation of the bonfire this year and in years to come.
