Just as Winter Carnival forms the foundation of Dartmouth's winter social scene, the annual construction of a giant snow sculpture in the center of the Green is one of the most important pillars of this winter celebration.
Beginning with the first sculpture in 1925, Dartmouth students have engaged in a yearly struggle to sculpt the snows of winter into a Carnival monument.
Campus politics, changing times and the always unpredictable New England weather have left their unique stamp on these frozen works of art over the years
Memorable sculptures
Over the past 71 years of snow sculpture history, students of every era have constructed many truly memorable sculptures.
The sculptures often depicted the pagan gods of winter or attempted to evoke the College's traditional relationship with Native Americans.
In 1941 there was Hyderdahl, a mythical Norse skier, and in 1956 students constructed Urrl, the Norse god of skiing, a sculpture which towered 45 feet above the Green.
During this period, many sculptures depicted Dartmouth's mascot at the time, a Native American.
A record setting 40-foot high statue of a Native American shooting an arrow at the skies, called "Starshooter," was constructed in 1940.
This creation was equaled in height by a "Fire and Ice" sculpture which depicted a Native American emerging from a pillar of flames, built in 1957 and named after a Robert Frost poem.
In 1955, students built a sculpture of an eskimo riding a whale. Due to extremely cold weather, the sculpture, named "Nanook," refused to melt and was finally destroyed with dynamite.
But there have also been other memorable sculptures that have had nothing to do with the Native American mascot.
One such sculpture was the 1953 sculpture, "Skigo," patterned after the Walt Kelly comic strip "Pogo."
Although recent sculptures have not rivaled those of years past, there have still been some impressive examples of snow engineering.
In 1983, for example, students built a 40-foot tall Pegasus, whose height rivaled the sculptures of the tradition's glory years.
The Guinness Book of World Records lists "Mardi Gras in Bourbon Street," a 47.5 foot snowman playing a saxophone that was built in 1987, as the tallest snowman ever built.
Sculpture politics
The nature of the sculptures often reflect current events.
During World War II, for example, students constructed a sculpture depicting a Native American riding an army jeep, while another featured a Japanese soldier pulling an American marine in a rickshaw.
In 1943, Carnival was canceled because the administration did not think it was appropriate to have such a frivolous party while soldiers were dying by the thousands every day.
But a few students, inspired by the "death" of the Carnival and the sacrifice of their countrymen, went ahead and built a snow sculpture anyway.
The sculpture "was to be a coffin in the foreground containing the figure of a doleful snowman complete with skis at his side and beer bottle clutched in one hand. In the background will be a huge V and on the front of the base will be the words "HERE LIES WINTER CARNIVAL WHO DIED FOR VICTORY."
In 1980, the sculpture consisted of a ski jumper framed by the Olympic Rings, a recognition of the Winter Olympic games in Lake Placid, N.Y.
In 1992, students protesting the banning of common-source alcohol like kegs from residence halls constructed a sculpture of the Grinch, a cartoon character created by children's author Dr. Seuss '25, sitting atop a beer keg.
Politics have also affected the sculpture in the form of vandalism of the structure.
In 1991, students protesting the Gulf War defaced the sculpture of Neptune with spray paint.
In 1994, the letters "AIM" were scrawled on the sculpture. No one claimed credit, or was apprehended, for this act of vandalism.
To build the sculpture
A lot of effort goes into building the sculpture.
First, a design is picked by members of the Dartmouth Outing Club's Winter Carnival division from a group of prototypes submitted by College undergraduates.
A miniature mock-up is then constructed and the work on the real sculpture begins a few weeks prior to the start of the Carnival.
Work is traditionally behind schedule, the weather is often uncooperative and the sculpture is almost always not completed until virtually the last minute.
In 1969, the sculpture was so behind schedule that its organizers sent a memorandum to the College's faculty to ask for their assistance with its completion.
The letter cited "problems of student labor, organization of the work, and certain distractions such as studies and women" as the causes of the problems.
They asked members of the College's administration to come out one night with "one bucket and one shovel each" to help with its completion and offered "coffee, hot chocolate, beer and a hot rum concoction," afterwards as an incentive.
Miracle on the Green
One classic example of how the sculpture brings together the Dartmouth community can be found in the inspiring job students did in 1980.
That year, things did not look so good for the sculpture.
Less than 10 days before the Carnival, there was no snow on the Green and unseasonably warm weather meant there was no snow anywhere that could be trucked in, as was done in 1938 and other years.
It appeared that there would be no snow sculpture for the first time since the tradition began.
But fortunately, through the perseverance of some students and the generosity of the community, the tradition of the Carnival sculpture survived unbroken.
John Cholnoky '80, the co-chair of the Carnival committee, saved the sculpture by petitioning local ski areas for the use of their snow-makers.
The Killington ski area loaned the committee their equipment and three of Killington's operators volunteered to come to Hanover and stay until enough snow had been made to build the sculpture.
The Hanover Inn agreed to furnish the three volunteers with housing free of charge for as long as they were working on the sculpture, and Dartmouth Dining Services agreed to feed them during their stay at the College.
With the aid of the technicians and their artificial blizzard, the Olympic ski-jumper sculpture was completed and the sculpture tradition remained intact.
