Starting today, approximately 30 teams from 10 schools will participate in the 52nd annual Dartmouth Woodsmen's Meet, an event which includes canoeing, sawing and relay competitions.
The event was founded by Ross McKenney, who constructed the Moosilauke Ravine Lodge, to allow competitors to use skills he felt were being lost with the modernization of logging.
The events have changed little over the years, though they have become more alien to a campus used to chainsaws and not axes. Some of the events have been modernized, and some, like the fishing events, have been dropped, Dartmouth's team coordinator David Hooke said.
The first competition was held at the College and involved three schools: Dartmouth, Williams and Kimball Union Academy.
The competition has been greatly expanded, and this year will include teams from Colby, University of West Virginia, Paul Smith's College and the University of New Hampshire.
The event has not always been at Dartmouth, although recently, competitors decided to hold it at Dartmouth every third year. "Dartmouth was a founder of the sport, and as other teams caught on, [the competition] moved around," Greg Miller '99 said.
The events, from Friday morning to Saturday afternoon, cover activities like canoeing, log rolling, wood splitting, pole climbing, wood chopping, sawing and fire starting.
Students that participate said they enjoy using skills that many of them would not have learned in their regular lives. "It's a neat way of keeping the old time logger traditions alive ... do it the old fashioned way," Miller said.
