re: 14 Years Ago

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Yeah, they gradually started building the stack taller and taller over the years (going back and looking at a few old pictures, it grew to be an absolute monstrosity).



Capped at 55 feet + outhouse in the 70's.

From 1904-1992, it was at Duncan Field and never fell. From 1993-1999, it was at the Polo Fields and fell twice.

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This is actually inaccurate. Bonfire was at the Simpson Drill Field until the 50's and then moved to Duncan where it was then moved to the Polo Grounds in '92. The folks who lived across from what is now George Bush (then Jersey) complained about the noise and danger of Bonfire being so close to their houses. I know my Dad was a Yell Leader in the '50s and back then the Yell Leaders acted as "Red Pots", but Bonfire wasn't nearly as big of a production back then but rather just a big stack of logs all on the ground with the outhouse on top.

It also fell several times but never in a catastrophic way. That was what was so shocking. Every log was wired together. When it had fallen before (usually after a rainy Fall season) you could see it coming with the stack starting to lean. Thus they would pull everyone off stack, pull it apart, and build it over.

So many little tragedies. They went to the 53 foot "wedding cake" design in '70 and actually had some engineers that helped to make sure it was built safely. Then in the '90s because of liability they couldn't have any engineers on the project and you just had the "Red Pots" in charge. The '99 Bonfire that fell had a first and second stack that were both of almost equal size, they did this thinking it would make it stronger when in fact the opposite was true. That is why the collapse was so catastrophic and without warning, just too much weight.