Tour guides for the College will have a new stop on their itinerary this year, the four newly erected brick pillars standing in front of Thayer Dining Hall.
A verifiable "Foodhenge," the new addition has crowds wondering.
While several students commented on the practical uses of the pillars, such as bike supports and brick depositories, many explored their possible cosmic dimensions.
"I say aliens put them there," Rolando Lopez '00 said.
Vince Cannon '99 explained the pillars served as a "guide for space aliens into Full Fare, or whatever it is called now, where they can get all the chicken they can eat."
Jason Gracilieri '99 said, "it is like one of those things in "Ghostbusters" for channelling ghost energy."
Students pondered that perhaps the posts could mark an ancient landmark.
"Maybe it's an ancient sacrifice spot where that new door to Robinson is the mouth of some strange pseudo-Mayan god and the pillars are braziers for burning incense," Noah Phillips '00 said.
Alex Magleby '00 agreed with that assessment, adding "these are the foundations for a virgin sacrifice balcony."
Randy Rutherford '99 explained, "if there were five of them, it would be for some satanic ritual."
The placement of the pillars, forming a square outlined by a foot-wide brick inlay, did not go unnoticed by students.
Doug White '97 explained, "there is the Bermuda Triangle ... and now we have the Dartmouth Square," he said.
Many students saw the pillars as possible shrines to Dartmouth tradition.
Freshman Curran Stockwell hypothesized, "I think they are for a really big pong table."
The College is "going to mount sculptures of Jimmy O., Dean Pelton, and Mr. Wheelock on them," Spencer Jones '00 said.
Larelin Cartaya '97 suggested the podiums could support a statue of the Cat in the Hat.
One of the most common hypotheses behind the structures saw the square 'arena' as some sort of new athletic facility.
Robert Rees '97 said the distance between the mystery objects "would be a perfect professional wrestling ring ... I can just see someone climbing up on there for a body slam."
Bethany Crenshaw '99 envisions "a big boxball court, you know, you used to play that in elementary school."
"At some point, they [the College] are going to get the Editor-in-Chief of the Dartmouth Review and James O. Freedman and turn it into a big boxing ring," Max Knight '99 said.
Kenneth Reyes '00 explained the pillars "are for a giant trampoline to entertain the students."
"It would be perfect for limbo," Kim Nguyen '98 added.
Senior Jennifer Pariseau answered definitively, "it's the practice field for the mini-football team."
Perhaps the most reflective responses to the mystery behind 'foodhenge' dealt with what the pillars symbolized.
"They represent the four eating areas [including Topside] in Thayer, in addition to the four food groups," Nicole Rinaldi '99 and Courtney Banghart '00 said.
"It's like a big sundial," Andrew Smith '98 said.
Of the more obscure ideas behind the strange brick posts were midget repelling towers, 'pads' for leap frogging, time capsules, and the foundations for a greenhouse.
A number of students suggested if the brick pillars were paired by large arches it would create an eerie parallel between Thayer and McDonald's.
Luckily for those students pondering the mysteries behind the mystical formation, Assistant Director of Facilities Jack Wilson was able to provide the answer.
The pillars "are supposed to define that area between the buildings as a square [and] to make it more pedestrian oriented," he said. "The idea is to keep people from parking there."
Wilson explained that the pillars are unfinished.
"They are going to get granite caps on the top of them, [and] those will be about 12 to 16 inches tall and round with a square base."
Originally, the College's plan included closing off the front of Thayer Dining Hall to traffic, but the drive must be left open for now.
"The hope is that sometime in the future that we can close that whole area to traffic," but "truck deliveries to Collis need to come there, [and] it is part of the delivery route to Thayer Dining Hall as well," he said.
Wilson also added that the pillars were constructed "to try to change the character of the road and to slow down people who fly through there."
So, for all of the puzzled students, "there is really a reason" for the pillars, he said.
