IF THE BUILDER WAS RIGHT, IT WOULD HAVE COLLAPSED BY NOW

The Moosilauke Ravine Lodge was originally conceived as a counterpart to the hotel that once stood on the mountain's summit. The hotel is now rubble, but the Lodge serves as a temporary home for 85 percent of each entering Dartmouth class during freshman trips. It is also open to the general public from April to October as a restaurant and inn.

The giant log cabin is the masterpiece of Dartmouth woodcraft advisor Ross McKenney. Humans and horses took four months to build the structure, which McKenney predicted would last about 40 years. That was 50 years ago.

In celebration of the Lodge's anniversary and in confident expectation that the building will stay up a good deal longer—the College held a celebration and an alumni environmental symposium in September. Festivities included a banquet, hiking, a debate between the 1936 trail and summit crews ("Who Was Worse?"), a mountain work trip, and a jamboree. Symposium panels covered topics ranging from students' environmental attitudes to "Innovative Approaches to Waste Management." The group didn't stop there. At the symposium's conclusion its organizers called for an environmental organization of Dartmouth alumni.

The Ravine Lodge, still standing.