In 1904, Winston Churchill came to see Dartmouth's bonfire. In 1954, a hurricane forced its cancellation. Sixteen years after that, it nearly brought about an environmental lawsuit.
And in 1999, visiting professor of sociology Daniel B. Lee, who studied Dartmouth life, told the Chronicle of Higher Education that the bonfire here allows students to bond and produces important "collegiate culture."
The first bonfire was constructed on the Green in 1888 to celebrate a Dartmouth baseball victory over Manchester.
At the time, The Dartmouth reported, "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."
Despite the bad first impression the bonfire made, it persisted. The first organized one was held in 1893 after the football team routed Amherst, 34-0.
According to The Dartmouth, it happened "at a late hour" and was accompanied by "war-dances of various descriptions."
Since then, the bonfire has become an institution at the College, surrounded by its own traditions.
Each year, first-year students gather to sweep through campus and Hanover, before arriving at the burning wooden structure and running around it for over an hour.
This year, some '03s will attempt to run around the fire 103 times.
Historically, the students who built the bonfire before each football rally were not quite as ambitious on the running front -- they ran three laps around the structure the night before each football game.
Environmental Controversy
The bonfire's development has not been without controversy.
In fact, in 1971, the Associated Press ran a story that predicted the bonfire tradition at Dartmouth would soon end, after the Center for Human Survival condemned the fire in 1970 as "wasteful," and said it created unnecessary pollution.
The Center threatened the College with a court order if construction continued.
The complaint was withdrawn, after one reader wrote to The Dartmouth, "Couldn't we have a fire and still be ecologically acceptable?"
The AP story said, "In a time when students are said to be purposeful and sober and seeking relevance in their college careers, a tradition from a more frivolous era is perpetuated at Dartmouth, a cornerstone of the Ivy League."
The bonfire was not extinguished by this prediction or the Phi Sigma Psi Fraternity condemnation of the yearly event 18 years later.
The fraternity said the wood used to create the burning spectacle could be used to heat three needy Upper Valley homes for the entire winter.
Bonfire Mishaps
Environmental protection was not always a concern for the people building the bonfire -- in the 1950s, a bonfire was built before every football game.
The World Wars led to scaled-down ceremonies as focus shifted to troops stationed abroad. Hurricane Hazel also forced the bonfire to be cancelled in 1954.
Another cancellation came in 1963 when the Hanover Fire Department said it would not be safe due to a severe dry spell.
The late sixties saw a five-year hiatus of the ritual during the Vietnam War due to a lack of interest.
In 1971, a farmer from Etna donated his barn to fill the bonfire. When students went to retrieve the wood, they found enough inside the barn and decided to leave the structure standing.
Two days later, a farmer appeared at the College, accompanied by the Hanover police saying students had raided his barn. The students had apparently gone to the wrong barn.
In 1988, 10,000 spectators gathered on the Green to see the blazing bonfire. The fire burned 10 feet high but did not collapse. Students awoke the next morning to see the charred wood of the bonfire still standing. Bulldozers had to tear the structure down.
In addition to pranks and unusual circumstances, violence has often surrounded the traditional Homecoming fire.
In 1982, a dynamite scare forced the Class of 1986 to disassemble the bonfire piece by piece. Fortunately, no explosives were found, and the structure was rebuilt.
In 1992, violence erupted among students, Safety and Security and Hanover police officers. Approximately 600 students, heavily intoxicated and wielding baseball bats and hockey sticks, threatened to storm the bonfire.
Building the structure
As of 1993, students were no longer allowed to guard the bonfire. Construction ended at dusk and the site was roped off and illuminated.
Another recent restriction limited the number of tiers that make up the bonfire. The last 100-tier bonfire was built in 1979.
Bonfire building is now strictly regulated: it takes only two days for the freshmen to erect the structure.
The current bonfire plan was designed by a student at the Thayer School of Engineering. It contains no nails, and falls in on itself as it burns.
Steve Erickson, Assistant Director of the Physical Education Department, told The Dartmouth in 1997 that the 36-foot-tall bonfire is designed to "burn quick and burn bright."
The wood is ordered in the Spring and dries all summer. Green wood is heavy and does not burn as well. Dry wood burns more quickly and the effect is more appealing.
The beams are stacked so that they lean slightly towards the center at the top so it is easy to climb without much chance of getting hurt.
The pallet in the inner portion of the bonfire is scrapwood-fill, which creates its own airspace as it burns which keeps the bonfire blazing.
