Since the first Winter Carnival sculpture was constructed in 1925, the tradition of carving grandiose and intricate snow statues has captivated Dartmouth for decades. A huge figure on the center of the Green greets returning alumni each Carnival weekend, while students look forward to expressing the chosen theme each year with snow and ice.
In the 82-year history of the sculpture, the statues have evolved and transformed, registering the changing interests and values of Dartmouth students.
Although Dartmouth's Winter Carnival began in 1910, the advent of the weekend's theme and sculpture did not arrive until 1925, when students constructed a large castle on the green. The palace paid homage to the Scandinavian winter festivals, "Jutenheim Iskarneval," which were the antecedents of Dartmouth's own Winter Carnival.
Two years later, fraternities started competing over who could create the most impressive snow sculpture outside their physical plant -- a tradition which has since died.
On the Green, many of the earlier figures represented heralded pagan gods or depicted the College's former -- and now highly controversial -- mascot, the Indian.
In 1940, students built "Starshooter," a record-setting 40-foot tall likeness of a Native American shooting an arrow at the sky. 1941 saw the construction of the mythical Norse skiing god Hyderdahl, which measured in at 45 feet.
In 1957, "Fire and Ice" brought back the Native American theme with a sculpture named after former Dartmouth student Robert Frost's poem, in which a Native American emerges from a pillar of flames.
Many snow sculptures have been grandiose in size and scope. In 1969, students built a dragon which actually breathed fire using a butane tank. In 1987, the sculpture of a 47.5 foot snowman playing a saxophone won the Guinness World Record for being the tallest snowman ever built.
Many of the sculptures have showcased an overtly political theme; during the Gulf War, for instance, a red peace sign painted on the ground in front of Dartmouth Hall accompanied a sculpture of Neptune, the "earth shaker."
The sculptures, while clearly always ambitious, have not always gone according to plan. In 1955, the sculpture of an Eskimo riding a whale lasted so long due to excessively cold weather -- even by Hanover's standards -- that it had to be destroyed with dynamite in the spring. The 1997 sculpture, which was intended to be a knight riding his horse, collapsed due to warm weather, and the sculpture was converted instead into a knight's funeral. The 1995 sculpture of a wolf balancing on its hind legs melted completely and leaving a disappointing pile of snow in the center of the Green.
Despite setbacks, though, recent sculptures may herald a return to the larger undertakings of Dartmouth's past classes. The 2004 sculpture of a cat on a hat to commemorate Dr. Seuss' 100th birthday was 30 feet high, and the 2005 sculpture of a pirate ship to complement that year's "Peter Pan" theme was 18 feet wide by 56 feet tall, and even boasted cannons.
Such innovative and impressive creations require a lot of planning. Once a Carnival theme has been chosen, the Winter Carnival Committee brainstorms ideas and feasibles designs. After the College approves a design, the sculpture team begins planing and eventually construction begins in increments of four feet using plywood. In recent years, varsity athletic teams have largely contributed to the construction process.
This year's snow sculpture is a 24-foot-tall rendering of the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland going off of a ski jump. Despite initial concerns about the weather, builders completed the snow sculpture on-time and as planned
"Early on, the warm weather got us really worried and so we were trying to come up with ways to minimize the amount of snow that we needed, but recently the cold weather's been really good," Schneider said when the construction was underway.
