Traditions Not Taught at Dartmouth

Editor’s Note: The following are obscure aspects of Dartmouth history and lore that have had an observable impact on the College in the present day. The following is in no way a comprehensive list. Rather, the specific traditions and episodes which follow have been selected in order to encourage students to learn more about the College’s history. In other words, pay a visit to Rauner Library!

The Lone Pine
The Lone Pine is an enduring symbol of the College. It refers to a longstanding tree—likely dating back to 1783—which was largely viewed as representative of Dartmouth’s storied history. Only a stump remains today, but the symbol itself lives on.
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The first report about the old tree is an improbable legend. In 1833, an undergraduate named Jacob Gale recounted a story of three Native Americans singing a farewell song while gathered around an ancient pine. However, later investigations showed that three Native Americans never graduated at the same time in the early history of the College.
James F. Joy ’33 later reminisced that there were stories which circulated during his time as an undergraduate about a graduating Class singing “Auld Lang Syne” around the tree before leaving the College.
Ten years later, the Pine was widely known and respected. An alumnus of the Class of 1840 remarked, “Some of us would occasionally, when out for recreation, sing a hymn which tradition told us the three Indians composed and sang.” A member of the Class of 1845 wrote, “We, like other Classes, had many meetings around the ‘Old Pine’ for gossiping, story-telling and music and some other exercises. One of these ‘other exercises’ was a tarring and feathering of a man charged with [a] crime.”
Within a few years, a tradition developed that graduating Classes would celebrate under the tree. From 1854 to 1895, with few exceptions, students would celebrate by singing, giving speeches, smoking a peace pipe, and laying mementos around the Old Pine.
In 1887, the Old Pine was struck by lightning, and in 1892, its main branch was broken in the wind. Finally, in 1895, the tree was cut down. Its stump remains there to this day. In 1967, the symbol was revived in a different form. The Class of 1927 planted the Dartmouth Pine near the entrance to BEMA. The Class later transferred stewardship to the Class of 1967, who ultimately passed care of the tree to the Class of 2007.

Dartmouth Canes
Canes have a long history at Dartmouth. In the eighteenth century, canes were a status symbol among students. Only sophomores and upperclassmen were allowed to carry them. But freshmen would frequently try to assert themselves by flaunting their canes. In response, older students would wrestle freshmen and seize their canes, in a tradition that came to be known as “cane-rush.”
Cane-rush reached its greatest heights in 1883. That year, freshmen took off their shirts and covered themselves in olive oil for a pitched battle with the sophomores. The freshmen stationed themselves on the Green in a protective formation around their prize: a hickory cane. The sophomores then rushed from their base in Reed Hall, beginning a two-hour battle. A student at the time wrote that freshmen who had been knocked unconscious were dragged from the fray by juniors and revived with buckets of cold water. Undeterred, many ran back in. The freshman Class of 1887 eventually lost when the sophomores dragged the prized cane back to Reed Hall. Over time, and not unsurprisingly, the brutal tradition fell out of favor and “cane-rush” died out.
As one cane-related tradition died out, however, another began. When the Class of 1887 graduated, its members bought or fashioned canes to commemorate the occasion and encouraged friends to carve their names into them. In due course, canes became a commercial venture. In 1899, Charles Dudley crafted the first Indian head cane, which became the predominant senior cane until 1974, when the Indian head symbol was eliminated.
Secret societies’ canes are the last vestige of Dartmouth’s long history of cane-related traditions. Every year, approximately twenty percent of graduating seniors carry canes to represent the secret societies with which they are affiliated.

The Ledyard Bridge
John Ledyard came to Dartmouth in 1772. Ledyard loved theater and was a good student, but he was restless—he found the pace of college life too slow. Seeking adventure, Ledyard cut down a tall tree on the banks of the Connecticut River and converted it into a log canoe. With his newly made vessel, Ledyard set out to explore the world with only four items: a huge bearskin, a poem by Ovid, the New Testament in Greek, and some bread. 150 miles downstream in Hartford, Ledyard called on a relative, who was surprised to find his nephew was not quietly studying in New Hampshire to become a missionary.
Ledyard stayed in Hartford for a time and studied theology, but his boredom overcame him again. He became a common sailor on a number of different sea voyages, traveling to Gibraltar and to London. After several years, Ledyard was impressed into the British Navy and sailed under Captain James Cook. However, he remained loyal to his native land and refused to fight against the U.S. when dispatched to Canada by the British during the American Revolution. He deserted and returned to Dartmouth, where he began writing what was to become the first book protected by copyright in the U.S.—a recounting of his travels in Hawaii under James Cook.
John Ledyard was never very good at staying in one place, and he was shortly plotting his next adventure: a trading journey to the northern Pacific. The venture failed to attract sufficient funding. But he succeeded in attracting the attention of Robert Morris, a prominent Philadelphia merchant, who gave Ledyard money and letters of introduction. In 1784, the explorer wound up in Paris, where he met Thomas Jefferson, then the U.S. Minister to France, who encouraged Ledyard’s next undertaking: to journey overland through Russia, cross the Bering Strait, and travel west to east across the continental United States until he reached Virginia.
The ever-eager Ledyard arrived in St. Petersburg just seven weeks later. His journey was cut short while traveling across Siberia, due to suspicion by Russian authorities that he was an American spy. Returning to London, Ledyard found employment on a journey to explore Africa, but he died of an illness in Cairo soon thereafter, in 1789.
The Ledyard Bridge was first built in 1859, near where the explorer cut down the tree and embarked upon his first adventure. One Dartmouth tradition related to the bridge is the so-called Ledyard Challenge, in which students attempt to swim across the Connecticut River naked and then streak back across the bridge, returning to their clothing. Clearly, the tradition is in some sense an appropriate one for John Ledyard, who consistently flouted convention through bold adventures.

The Senior Fence
In the early nineteenth century, the Green was used primarily as a football field for students. In those days it was enclosed by a set of flimsy railings, which the townspeople would remove to let their cattle graze on the field. The students resented the practice, however, because the cattle made the Green a far worse playing field. Aware of the students’ complaints, the College informed the townspeople that the practice had to stop.
The next time cattle were caught grazing in the field, students were infuriated. They drove the cattle into the basement of Dartmouth Hall and sealed the entrance with stones and dirt! In turn, townspeople formed a mob and advanced on the College to demand their cattle returned. The ensuing standoff was perhaps most damaging to the cows, who were trapped in confined quarters on a hot September day; one report described them as “wet with perspiration and crowding as if they had been in a mill-pond.” Eventually, the students let the cattle go.
In order to deter future grazing episodes, the College erected a far sturdier fence, which continued to border the Green until 1893, when cattle grazing was no longer an imminent threat and the administration dismantled the fence.
In response, students ensured that a small portion was preserved as a “Senior Fence,” which runs to this day along parts of the southern and western borders. Only seniors were allowed to sit on the fence; when younger students tested this policy, they were soaked with water from a nearby trough. These senior privileges began to erode during World War II, and, by 1960, they had disappeared entirely. Today, all students are free to sit on the fence, without fear of water-based reprisal.