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Who designs and builds the homecoming bonfire? What's the history behind it?
On a May night in 1888, celebrations of a Dartmouth baseball victory over Manchester made College history. The Dartmouth of May 4, 1888 reported: "The convulsive joy of the underclassmen burst forth on the night of the first Manchester game in the form of a huge fire. 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."
From such inglorious beginnings, the Dartmouth Night bonfire has become a treasured tradition, kicking off homecoming weekend in October.
Dartmouth Night was inaugurated by President William Jewett Tucker in September of 1895 to promote class spirit and welcome first-year students. In addition to the bonfire, the annual festivities include a homecoming celebration and a football game.
Since 1907, upperclassmen have delegated the construction of the bonfire to freshmen. First-year students build the structure in the center of the Dartmouth Green, and revelers still run around the conflagration, but a number of things have changed.
Originally, students built the bonfire from any scrap wood found in the vicinity, and leftover railroad ties eventually became a popular source. Today, the structure's layers are made of non-treated, square-cut pine timber, harvested locally by a farmer near campus; the base tier is filled with shipping pallets and other waste wood.
In its early years, the bonfire was followed by a pajama snake dance. (Archival photographs in the Rauner Library show the singed fabric of those who drew too near.) Now, students typically wear their class-year shirts and paint their faces. Contests have been held by classes trying to outdo one another with competitions for the highest, fastest-built, and the most combustible bonfire. The last 100-tier bonfire was built in 1979, but today, safety is a primary concern. The bonfire is built to specifications outlined in the "Bonfire Construction Safety Policies and Procedures" maintained by the Student Life office.
In a design developed by students at the Thayer School of Engineering, the bonfire is currently comprised of a three tier "wedding cake" design: a star-shaped base tier, a hexagonal second tier, and a square top tier. The three tier design is also a safety feature. The interior points of the first level six-sided star burn the fastest so the weights of the upper two levels in the hexagon and square have the structure fall into itself. The bonfire is topped off by the class number (this year, "Class of 2012").
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On a May night in 1888, celebrations of a Dartmouth baseball victory over Manchester made College history. The Dartmouth of May 4, 1888 reported: "The convulsive joy of the underclassmen burst forth on the night of the first Manchester game in the form of a huge fire. 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."
