By Allie Lowe
The Dartmouth Staff
It isn't often that a letter to the Editor of The Dartmouth sparks a tradition that endures for some 97 years. But in 1910, the words of one impassioned note were enough to establish one of Dartmouth's most storied occasions -- an event marked by a celebration of the great outdoors, the occasional celebrity visit, consistently notable parties and an unusually high level of debauchery, even by college standards.
The Birth of a Tradition
Winter Carnival began as the brainchild of Fred Harris '11, who also founded the Dartmouth Outing Club during his influential stay in Hanover. In December 1909, Harris wrote a letter to The Dartmouth calling for the creation of a "meet or field day" in celebration of the winter season.
Just two months later, on Feb. 26, 1910, a "Winter Meet" was held near Occom Pond -- the first incarnation of what would soon become a hallowed Dartmouth tradition.
While the "Meet" that year included only ski races, hockey games, and various other sporting events, the event was soon expanded to include other social and athletic activities.
In 1925, Winter Carnival was given its first theme: "Jutenheim Iskarneval," a tribute to the Scandinavian carnivals that the event was patterned after. The 1925 Carnival also included the event's first-ever ice sculpture on the Green -- a large medieval castle.
Interest from Outside "The Bubble"
Throughout its history, Carnival has been marked by visits from those outside the Dartmouth community.
Perhaps one of Winter Carnival's most celebrated tales is that of F. Scott Fitzgerald's visit in 1939. Though Fitzgerald came north to film a movie based on the book "Winter Carnival" he had written with Budd Schulberg '36, he fell victim to a peril that many Dartmouth students know all too well -- the allure of intoxication in fraternity basements. After spending much of the weekend at Alpha Delta and Psi Upsilon fraternities, Fitzgerald was fired by Schulberg and was forced to check into a New York sanitarium to recover from his time in Hanover.
In the 1950s, word of Dartmouth's winter event led visitors to arrive in hordes. In 1952, the influx of eager party participants led to an eight-mile long traffic jam on the roads leading into Hanover.
"I think it was probably the premium college weekend," Frank Katz '64 said. "There are homecoming weekends everywhere. But if you got invited to Dartmouth Winter Carnival, you really lucked out."
Women Join the Party
In the years before coeducation, many of these weekend visitors were women, who came from nearby colleges by way of buses and trains to meet up with their boyfriends or blind dates.
Jim Vongal '63 recalled the excitement with which women were greeted on Carnival weekend.
"In the middle of winter at an all-male college, when you get women there for the weekend for the first time in six weeks, it could be a little crazy," he said.
Vongal explained that in order to make room for their visitors, fraternity members would vacate their bedrooms for the weekend.
"The rule on campus would be that no males would be allowed above the first floor from noon on Friday until noon on Sunday so the ladies could have privacy," he said.
Two members of the fraternity, usually pledges, would have the duty of standing guard on the first floor of the building. These students, who were termed "the firewatch," would stay up all night to prevent wayward males from making their way upstairs, and to alert the visiting women in case of fire.
In the earliest years of the Carnival, fraternity houses were also monitored by parent chaperones who kept the members and their dates in check.
Bob McLellan '35 was lucky enough to have his mother as chaperone of his fraternity during Carnival weekend.
"My mother had brought up four sons, and boy, she didn't let anyone get upstairs," McLellan said. "She would stand there and give 'em hell. They didn't like her at first but they finally grew to like her."
The Social Scene
The Greek system has long played an important role in Winter Carnival festivities, providing space for the weekend's legendary parties as well as organizing several campus events.
Though today only the snow sculpture on the Green remains, in earlier years each house would build a sculpture for entrance in a school-wide competition.
In 1971, Bones Gate fraternity's sculpture featured a Playboy bunny, a design chosen at the behest of Playboy representatives who were on campus filming the "Playmate of the Month" feature.
Sporting events have also long been an integral part of the weekend's social calendar.
As a member of the Winter Sports Council who chaired the body during his senior year, William Powers '71 was in charge of organizing the ski events which took place on Carnival weekend -- including the now-defunct ski jumping competition.
"Everybody used to bring themselves and their dates out to the ski jump at 1 p.m. on Saturday," he said. "You got to stand right at the bottom and right along the landing hill. People would come off this thing and you would see the bottom of their skis as they came over the top of your head and landed."
Powers recalled that while setting up the jump, the running joke was to point out where the Norwegian skiers would land way down the hill, and then to note where the Harvard skiers would land -- right at the top.
"[The ski jump] was a great thing," Powers said, "As long as it wasn't ten degrees below zero."
The potential for cold temperatures at Winter Carnival also led Powers to note one of the weekend's cardinal rules.
"You never, ever, ever would go to bed on Winter Carnival weekend until you knew where your roommate was, because you didn't want your roommate to pass out in the snow," Powers said. "That was a definite rule."
New Traditions
While some of Carnival's older traditions are no longer upheld, subsequent generations of Dartmouth students have done their best to maintain the spirit of the weekend.
In the 1980s and 1990s, an annual "keg jump" was held outside of Psi Upsilon fraternity. Fancying themselves as reincarnations of stuntman Evil Kneivel, fraternity members would line up empty kegs on a makeshift ice rink in front of the fraternity building, and then attempt to jump over the kegs on hockey skates.
"They would put down tons of mattresses," Kendel Fesenmyer '91 said, "Then they'd all put on hockey gear or football gear and just launch themselves over the kegs."
Keg jumping was discontinued in 2000 when the College refused to continue providing insurance coverage for the event.
"It wasn't all that unsafe, really," said Fesenmyer, who noted she had never heard of anyone getting hurt at the event.
One event at which injuries did occur, Fesenmyer admitted, was the luge members of Alpha Chi Alpha fraternity constructed. The makeshift luge twisted and turned from the second floor balcony of their building and ended on the building's front lawn -- the site of a bruised tailbone for one of Fesenmyer's friends.
In 1994, the Polar Bear Swim was added to the Carnival's schedule. At this event, students jump into a hole cut in the ice of Occom Pond.
While some aspects of Winter Carnival have changed over the years, the spirit of the weekend has remained the same, as Dartmouth students continue use the event as an opportunity to embrace the winter weather, drunken antics and each other's company.
One can imagine that Fred Harris would be proud.
