The Hiker's Elm

The Hiker’s Elm is located on the corner of Main and Wheelock street, across the street from the Hanover Inn. Described as the “ascendant lord of the local trees,” the Hiker’s Elm is marked with the double blazes of the Appalachian trail, which instructs hikers to turn a corner. The tale of this American Elm can be told through the journey of the Dartmouth Green’s development.

The land on which Dartmouth sits was originally a forest full of pines with a dense foliage blocking sunlight from reaching the ground. These pines began to be cleared in 1770 as part of the creation of the college Green, a cleared and open square meant to be shared as a living space (Dartmo.: Buildings G-K. 8 Feb. 2005). Hanover’s development began in earnest in 1771 after the college’s founding, with the center of the town being an open square the size of seven and a half acres. The stumps of the cut-down pines would remain until 60 years later. Each class just before 1820 was tasked to remove a stump from the Green, allowing it to look like the open space it now resembles. Every year for the next sixty years, each class was tasked to remove a stump from the Green, slowly transforming the space into the geometric grass space it now is. The Green was kept mostly unkempt during its early years, but in 1828 the Board of Trustees decided to clean and level the area, installing a fence around the square in 1836 (Childs, Francis Lane (1961). Hanover, New Hampshire: A Bicentennial Book. Hanover, New Hampshire: The Vermont Printing Company). The fence was intended to stop townspeoples from using the Green to feed their cattle and to keep wild animals out. 

Dartmouth College students used the Green for a variety of sports events, ranging from tennis to football (Lord, John King). In 1893, the fence's original purpose of keeping animals out was no longer needed, and it was torn down. After, however,, alumni outcry allowed for restoration of part of the fence which would be dubbed the “Senior fence” (“Dartmo.: Buildings Q-S.” Archive.Ph, 23 July 2012). Non-senior students who sat on this fence were soaked with water. Finally, in 1906, the Board of Trustees decided to officially baptize the space as the College Green, and has remained largely unchanged aside from some elms being removed due to Dutch Elm’s disease. Sometime during this period, the titular Hiker’s Elm was planted.

The Green as the center point of life in Hanover also contributed to the integration of the town into the Appalachian trail. The Dartmouth Outing Club cabins, established in 1913, became founding points for the Appalachian trail, which was established in 1923. Today, the Dartmouth Outing Club is responsible for maintaining over 50 miles of the trail. As a town gathering space, the Green has hosted public protests for students and townspeoples, served as a communal celebration place for the beginning of spring each year, and been the location of numerous snowball fights at the sight of first snow each year. Alive for most of contemporary Dartmouth history, the Hiker’s Elm has seen it all.

Childs, Francis Lane (1961). Hanover, New Hampshire: A Bicentennial Book. Hanover, New 

Hampshire: The Vermont Printing Company

Lord, John King. Chawe, Frederick. A History of Dartmouth College and the Town of Hanover, New Hampshire; Volume 1. Volume 1. Nabu Press.

Dartmo.: Buildings G-K. 8 Feb. 2005

“Dartmo.: Buildings Q-S.” Archive.Ph, 23 July 2012