Karin Hurst AS ’79, Marketing & Communications

Among the items you’d least expect to see displayed in President Brad Mortensen’s conference room is a 100-year-old hunk of oxidized steel. Yet, there it lurks — a jagged-edged, 24-inch cylinder bathed in a rich palette of rust, silver and charcoal — unabashedly greeting visiting donors and

达官贵人，默默主持行政人员、教职员工和社区领袖的官方聚会。 Those unfamiliar with 新葡京app’s past would not likely guess the corroded curiosity is a precious relic of a venerable school tradition. 但事实的确如此。

空气的变化

韦伯学院在1922年秋天经历了一个关键的转变。 在那个学年结束时，将不再提供高中课程。 For President 特雷西亚伦, 新葡京app’s imminent adoption of college-only academic curricula was the fulfillment of a dream. College student body president 威拉德万豪酒店 and high school student body president 卢埃林麦凯 teamed with sociology faculty 哈维·l·泰勒 to plan a fitting celebration. They settled on the audacious idea of leading a march to the 9,579-foot summit of Mount Ogden to “crown the peak” with a steel flagpole. In its Oct. 3, 1922, edition, the 韦伯先驱报》 student newspaper, urged all 630 students enrolled to participate in the Oct. 4 event and sign sheets of paper that would be placed in a glass jar and encased at the foot of the flagpole “as a sign that you love your school and share in her gift to those that are to follow.”

WSU professor emeritus 加里·d·威尔登， aka “Dr. Fun,” taught outdoor adventure and recreation for 35 years and understands the appeal of blisterbursting, muscle-cramping hikes. “It’s in some ways almost a spiritual experience,” he said. “The sights and sounds and sensations in places like that, you just don’t find in valleys.”

According to Willden, marking an important milestone with a large group trekking to a single destination wasn’t uncommon in an era that pre-dated TV and social media. 自1912年夏天以来，每年都有大批犹他州徒步旅行者一起攀登12,000英尺高的廷帕诺戈斯山山顶。 What amazes Willden about 新葡京app’s inaugural Mount Ogden Hike is the ruggedness of the original route, the large turnout (an estimated 350 to 365 participants) and the fact that their mission was accomplished in one day.

“Snowbasin was not developed in 1922, so the original hikers came up the Taylor Canyon side,” he explained. “From that side, you’ve got a nice trail up to Malan’s Basin, where there are remnants of Malan Heights, a Gilded Age hotel and resort. But once you get out of there, it’s pretty much bushwhacking and boulder hopping the rest of the way up to the saddle.”

爆炸性的开始

从技术上讲，最初的徒步旅行者得到了一些帮助，9月30日星期六，一个六人的先锋队骑着马来到奥格登峰，锻造了一条基本的小径，并用大锤打了一个足够深的洞来埋炸药。 爆炸产生了一个三英尺的大坑，以容纳旗杆的底部。

10月4日（周三）凌晨4点到5点之间，一群喧闹的学生、教师和校董聚集在泰勒峡谷口的一块岩石地标附近。 学生们按年龄分成小组，每个小组负责一项特定的任务。 高中二年级的学生将搬运水、沙子和水泥； 三年级学生将把300磅重的钢旗杆分成三段拖拽。 （一支由六匹马组成的队伍被派来搬运重物，但随着山路变得越来越陡峭和危险，学生们不得不自己搬运杆子部分。） 一旦他们到达顶峰，高年级的学生就会设置杆子； 学生会的领导们会把杆子拼接起来； 大学生们会升起美国国旗和校旗。

徒步旅行者们在学校乐队欢快的乐声中开始了他们的登山之旅。 教师带头，高中二年级学生、三年级学生和四年级学生紧随其后，大学生排在最后。

经过九个小时的艰苦奋斗，疲惫的群众到达了目的地。 他们停下来吃了午饭，然后把旗杆抬到20英尺高的地方，放进准备好的洞里，用现场混合的混凝土把它紧紧地包裹起来。

An inscription on a bronze plaque bolted to the bottom of the flagpole read, “Presented by the Associated Students of 新葡京app College, 1922.”

徒步旅行者们欣赏着他们认为自己是给后代的礼物，他们认真地听着特蕾西校长和学生领袖的讲话。 卢埃林麦凯’s father, 新葡京app College Board of Trustees president, alum and former principal, 大卫·o·麦凯， complimented the students on their miraculous feat, reminding them that “all things worthwhile in life are difficult of attainment, just as the reaching of the peak had been.” 麦凯，耶稣基督后期圣徒教会的使徒，随后献上了奉献祈祷。 伴随着号角声，大学生们升起了两面国旗。 The program concluded with the group singing the “Star-Spangled Banner” and “Purple and White,” 新葡京app’s newly composed school song.

在接下来的十年里，这条穿过泰勒峡谷，经过马兰高地，到达奥格登山顶的小径被称为韦伯小径。 然而，到了1932年，另一种校园传统出现了。 It involved a much easier hike to Malan’s Peak and culminated in the lighting of a large bonfire after which participants hiked back down the trail in moonlight. 这项活动后来被称为“火焰徒步”。

上去的一定要下来

Clearly, the intent of those who erected the steel structure on Mount Ogden’s windy peak in 1922 was for it to last forever. So, you can imagine alum Ted McGregor’s angst close to five decades later when he burst into then alumni association director Dean W. Hurst’s office claiming the U.S. Forest Service had enforced a law mandating the removal of all unauthorized structures on northern Utah mountains, including Mount Ogden. (McGregor was among the vanguard unit that created a hole for the pole’s foundation.)

为了证实传闻中的拆迁，麦格雷戈和赫斯特乘坐私人飞机飞越了山顶。 他们看到那根旗杆确实被砍断了几段，扔到了东边的悬崖上。 赫斯特说，他不久之后就去了现场，希望能找到梅森罐，里面有徒步旅行者的签名，但只找到了一块看起来有玻璃罐盖痕迹的混凝土，以及一根生锈的两英尺长的旗杆碎片。 While the current whereabouts of the concrete remains a mystery, the chunk of pole was disinterred from a long-forgotten storage box in the basement of Lindquist 校友 Center shortly before Mortensen’s 2020 inauguration. 从那以后，他一直把它作为学校骄傲和学生坚韧的象征。

“In their official government language, the Forest Service referred to the flagpole as ‘an unauthorized protuberance,’ so they tore that out,” Willden lamented. “Well, in the years since then, all kinds of ‘protuberances’ have been authorized and the place now looks like an airport!” 1975年，林务局（Forest Service）允许校友领袖们在山顶的一块露出地面的岩石上竖起一块青铜纪念牌，但一场早期的雪灾将这项工作推迟到了1976年8月。

恢复崎岖的冒险

In 1987, then 新葡京app State president, 斯蒂芬•Nadauld asked Willden to revive the legendary hike. Despite atrocious weather and a meager turnout, the activity generated enough enthusiasm that Nadauld promoted the following year’s hike as part of the college’s 1988 centennial celebration.

“He came up with some private funding to pay for a helicopter and we were able to locate four elderly gentlemen who had made the inaugural hike and transport them up to the saddle to greet the roughly 300 hikers,” Willden reminisced. “It was beautiful weather. There were some folding chairs and a PA system so we could have a nice program.”

庆祝百年

2022年10月4日，奥格登山徒步旅行100周年。 WSU 校园娱乐 associate director 丹尼尔•特纳 and a 15-member committee spent nearly two years planning a commemoration that was bigger and more elaborate than anything ever done.

“We tried to make 2022’s hike as similar as possible to the 1922 hike,” Turner said. “We continued the tradition of carrying the 新葡京app State flag with us, but by using the Snowbasin route instead Taylor Canyon, we were better able to manage the risk associated with hiking that mountain with a large group of people.”

The event, held Sept. 24, 2022, began at Earl’s Lodge patio with a light breakfast, a greeting from President Mortensen and the introduction of special guests, including 95-year-old 奎因·g·麦凯， a 大卫·o·麦凯 family representative. 当参与者分成高级、中级和初级远足组时，军乐队发出了激动人心的欢送声。 Some folks chose to ride the gondola to Snowbasin’s Needles Lodge, which eliminated three quarters of the distance. “One of our key goals was to meet people where they were in terms of age and ability,” Turner explained.

在峰顶下方的鞍座上，下午举行了一个活动，为100周年纪念牌匾揭幕。 The crowd sang “Purple and White,” as well as the school’s familiar fight song, which has declared 新葡京app State “great, Great, GREAT” since 1965.

值得记住的徒步旅行

In its current iteration as in its past, 新葡京app’s trek to Mount Ogden Peak is more than a pleasure hike. At its core, the Mount Ogden Hike is a metaphor for 新葡京app’s remarkable trajectory from 新葡京app Stake Academy to 新葡京app State University. In 1922–23, as high school courses yielded to junior college curriculum, students and faculty were hopeful, yet largely uncertain about the future of their beloved institution. 整个社区也想知道接下来会发生什么。 By staking a flagpole at the summit of Mount Ogden, 新葡京app staked its claim to the past, present and future.

“Here’s a group of 350 faculty, staff and students that, by establishing that flagpole on that mountain top that day, said, ‘新葡京app is here to stay,’” Turner said.

As the editors of the 橡子纪念品 yearbook noted so prophetically in their 1922–23 publication: “Ogden City realizes as this school year ends, that 新葡京app College is established to remain and that it has attained that true spirit which will mean growth for the community, for the college, and for the individual.”

特纳说，他相信华盛顿州立大学总有人会承担监督年度加息的重任。

大卫·o·麦凯 (center) and 新葡京app College president 亚伦特蕾西 (right) speaking to hikers during the 1922 flag ceremony

拉塞尔•克罗夫特 (left) and 院长赫斯特 (right) on Mount Ogden in 1970 holding the remnants of the 1922 flagpole

加里Willden 2002年站在奥格登山顶

徒步旅行者接近奥格登峰，摄于2022年