Blog: Dermot Cole
UAF celebrates Starvation Gulch this weekend, continuing a tradition that began in 1923.
The annual bonfires started as an assignment for freshman, but evolved into the celebration known as Starvation Gulch that features students, alumni, faculty and others gathering to start the new school year.
Anyone with questions, concerns or extra pallets can contact the UAF Student Activities Office at 474-6026.
The wood piles are to be built Saturday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Taku parking lot. The fires are to be lit at 10 p.m. The evening includes music and a barbecue. The public is welcome.
The Tradition Stone often makes an appearance. There was a report in the campus newspaper, the Sun Star, that the stone has been stolen again.
Tom Hewitt wrote that graduate student Jake Horazdovsky said the stone, a mock tomb from 1957 that marks the death of tradition, was taken from a backyard near Farmer's Loop, where it had resided for a few months.
Every year enough wood is burned that could be better used to help heat area homes, especially during these hard times. I think the student body should distribute the wood rather that burn it.
"I think the student body should distribute the wood rather that burn it."
After that they could dress in sack cloth & ashes and parade around campus flagellating themselves.
What about the Particulates this bonfire will release into the air? Watch the Borough Assembly BAN this on behalf of "saving the children"! Better clear this bonfire with Nadine Winters & Jim Whitaker before anyone strikes a match!!
lets throw plastic bags into the fire/heat and watch them float around the sky. Now we have particulates and plastic bags in the air!
Yeah, if that fireplace ban were to pass, would events like this and those of so many other groups, families and organizations be banned as well?
I suppose it is so much safer for Alaskans to stay out of the wild, out of the streets and keep to themselves in their shacks to inhale the toxicity of their own homes - carpets, glues, dogs, lack of showering, and shiver the night away with only their dog teams to heat the places!
Sorry for the absurdity - I really don't intend to offend any Alaskan except possibly those that are Assembly members that vote for ridiculous taxes and fire bans.
Good night, keep warm in the snow!
Oh god ....please stop this and save the polar bears,and don't forget to help the walrus... (Seriously.....Burn Baby Burn)
Yup no more camp fires.
No, the UAF students will begin a new tradition and take all those pallets, cut them up and distrubted them to the poor in Fairbanks that need wood to burn this winter to stay warm. Inspired by their new president, they will realize it is a waste to do this activity that does not benefit anyone but themselves and will become true liberal social community activist instead of drunken, heathens who think only of their own wants, They will on their own realize the harm they will do this community if they do this massive waste of resources that could benefit the poor and harm the environment. They turn a new leaf and change tradition for the good of the masses. Ya, right. Have fun and enjoy this tradition, went to it decades ago when a student at UAF.
They used to give a keg to the dorm collecting the largest pile of wood for the fire. In '77 or '78 Lathrop and MacIntosh Halls almost came to blows over who got the prize. Lathrop had gotten a large flatbed from B-Line construction & brought in a massive amount of logs from a parcel of land that had been cleared for a house site. Mac got lots of pallets and built a semi-hollow woodpile which was slightly larger, despite weighing only a fraction of Lathrop's. Just when things were about to get ugly, Chancellor Cutler solved the problem by buying a second keg with his own money so that both dorms could party. Now *that* was inspired leadership.
College is supposed to be FUN.
A bonfire, especially one that is supervised, should be harmless.
Will you people just back off and let our young adults have a little harmless fun?
Just leave them alone already!
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