Fishermen and Chips
THE chips will be flying and the fishing reels whirring in Hanover over Woodsmen's Weekend, May 8 and 9, when students from eleven eastern colleges and schools get together tor their eighth annual contest of skills excelled in by pioneer ancestors. Inaugurated by Ross McKenney, D.O.C. woodcraft adviser, eight years ago, the Woodsmen's Weekend includes such activities as fly and bait casting; wood chopping and splitting; crosscut and buck sawing; felling and twitching; doubles and singles canoe races through an obstacle course; portage race; and log rolling (non-political) - with judging points based upon speed, skill and accuracy of execution.
Dartmouth has won all but one of the meets so far - Middlebury won in 1952 but each encounter has been a nip-and-tuck affair. Last year Maine trailed Dartmouth by only 41 points on a winner's total of 1148, after being ahead until the final event.
Originally one of the thirteen tests of skill scheduled included the building of a fire, cooking two pieces of bacon and a couple of pancakes, then heating a pail of soapy water until it boiled over. So much confusion and smoke were generated by this event, however, that it was taken off the list. As Ross McKenney stated, "Any campfire girl can build a bonfire." The only other change in the program during the last seven years has been the substitution of single competitors, rather than pairs of choppers, in the tree-felling event, to eliminate the danger of one axe swinger lopping off a partner's leg.
Competing teams will camp out near Storrs Pond, where the events will take place. The D.O.C. gave serious thought to staging part of the competition on the campus, but for this year at least the plans had to be given up.
The winning team will keep in its possession for one year the William Q. Brazel Trophy, donated by an alumnus who participated in the first Woodsmen's Weekend in 1947. Competing for the trophy this year will be Dartmouth, Middlebury, the Universities of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, Bates, Bowdoin, Colby, Paul Smith's College, Kimball Union Academy and Holderness School.
