With the D.O.C.
THANKS TO A resurgence of campus interest in Dartmouth Outdoors, the leadership of a large number of competent upperclassmen, and the financial support of a growing group of alumni, the Outing Club is completing a creditable fall program, despite unprecedented weather handicaps.
One official trip was made to Mount Chocorua and the Sandwich Range on October 11-12, before the woodlands of New Hampshire were closed because of extreme fire hazard. But not for long were the energies of the D.O.C. stymied. During a preliminary workout on a Norwich forest fire on October 20-22, the full resources of the Club were called upon by the State Forestry Department to control a menacing fire that had broken out after a lightning storm on Mount Sunapee and threatened to "do a Bar Harbor" on the resort property and communities surrounding the lake.
For five days—and five nights—under- graduates teamed with local volunteers and the National Guard to hold this fire in the hills. Finally, on the afternoon of October 25, when the Big Green football team was staving off Flarvard's last-quarter efforts, the Dartmouth contingent remaining in Hanover held the seven-mile line and continued to hold it to an area of of about three square miles (equivalent to more than 1500 football fields).
According to D.O.C. records, nearly 600 undergraduates fought the fire, which proved to be the most serious October fire in the upper Connecticut Valley. And let it be known, with full credit to the Cabin and Trail leaders in charge of each group, that not a single major casualty occurred, despite around-the-clock use of sharp tools, in unfamiliar terrain, under exciting conditions, and often in the darkness of the long fall night.
Among the many letters of appreciation was the following statement by the Fire Wardens of Goshen: "The fine spirit of cooperation shown by the members of your club was a great help in checking what might have been a dangerous threat to our town."
On Saturday. November 1, the ban was lifted in Coos County. Hunting parties, including President Dickey and Dean Kimball of Thayer School, stampeded for the College Grant, Dartmouth's outpost in the North Country. This group made its headquarters at Peak's Camp, an old cabin built by Jim Cilley, one-time College Grant fire patrolman, and turned over to the D.O.C. by the College Board of Trustees on October 1. Meanwhile, another group hauled equipment to the Alder Brook Cabin, described in the October issue, to complete outfitting that new camp in good hunting and fishing country.
Simultaneously an undergraduate work party was concentrating on Dartmouth's own property at the Moosilauke Ravine Camp—mowing the Dipper Ski Trail, completing the undergraduate cabin, and helping to prepare the Ravine Camp for winter guests.
By the next weekend (November 8-9), the fall program was in full swing, within the restrictions of the ban. The Ravine Camp was filled to capacity with Intercollegiate Outing Club delegations transported from Hanover in the "Six-by-Six" contributed by John R. McLane '07 and warmed with fireplace wood cut by the power saw donated by H. Pennington Haile '24. The Peak's Camp accommodated several hunting parties. And the Alder Brook Cabin was completed! Appropriately enough, the first deer to hang at the new cabin was killed by Alex McPherson '44, president of the club in 1943, and largely responsible for the construction this year of the new outpost.
The Hinman Cabin on Reservoir Pond, thanks to a S 1,000 gift by John H. Hinman '08, is undergoing a thorough facelifting, so that this popular cabin with its grand view of Smart's Mountain will be in better condition for the years ahead.
The ski teams—varsity, junior varsity, and freshman—are preparing for a strenuous schedule this winter, encouraged by the fact that 12 members of each squad will represent Dartmouth with brand-new uniforms provided by a gift of $1,000 from Fred Harris '11, founder of the D.O.C.
Meanwhile, the Oak Hill Ski Tow is being prepared for its eleventh winter with a new cable and six new poles to support it. Whether this shdt-in-the-arm will enable the pioneer installation to "carry on" remains to be seen.
One of the most important pieces of news to develop on the D.O.C. front in Hanover this fall is the decision of the Trustees to undertake year-round operation of the Ravine Camp. A four-person crew, headed by Manager Carl Schmalz, has reconditioned the Camp for winter guests and the latch string is hanging for any alumnus to grab. The "Sawyer Highway" (N. H. 118) from Warren to North Woodstock was hard-surfaced this fall; the State Highway Department has promised to plow not only that route, but also the approach road to the Camp; a winter parking area has been bull-dozed immediately behind the Ravine Camp, and the entire establishment is open year-round to all Dartmouth alumni and their friends
BEFORE THE D.O.C. BROUGHT IT UNDER CONTROL: The forest fire at Mt. Sunapee, 40 miles from Hanover, as seen from the air on October 25, when 150 undergraduates, under D.O.C. leadership, were successfully battling the blaze. Mt. Kearsarge, to the south, is seen through the smoke on the left skyline.
