College of Natural Resources hosts 75th annual Logger’s Ball
The College of Natural Resources at Utah State University hosted its 75th annual Logger’s Ball on Saturday at the Logan Country Club. The ball is the college’s largest event and allows students to relax, eat and listen live music.
The Logger’s Ball is the longest-standing tradition in the College of Natural Resources. This year’s event marked the 90th year since the first Logger’s Ball was held in 1927. It was originally started by the forestry students at Utah State, who would come back from working as lumberjacks and would throw the ball to catch up with fellow students and relax.
This year’s ball started at 7 p.m. with dinner. Guests were free to move about the event to have their photos taken at the photo booth or enter their beard into a beard contest. Aggie Radio provided music throughout the event.
At 9 p.m., local band The Young North took the stage and provided live music for the rest of the event. Door prizes were raffled off throughout the night.
Rachel Turley “We didn’t do anything particularly out of the norm,” said Rebecca Thomas, the senator for the College of Natural Resources. “We’re bringing back a couple of older traditions.”
Thomas said a unique thing they brought back this year was the Logger’s Ball buttons that were given out to attendees. The event remains relatively the same from year to year.
“The traditional part of it is fun, students come and it’s not a formal event,” Thomas said. “You literally come in flannel and boots, and I think people like that.”
In the past, the College of Natural Resources would use the event to help raise funds for the Jessica Clark Tayon Scholarship, which is now in perpetuity. The tickets students purchase now pay mostly for the cost of catering.
The purpose of the event, however, has always been to help students and faculty to interact.
“It adds a lot of camaraderie between the faculty and the students,” Thomas said.
Overall, about 125 people attended the event. Many of the attendees were students from the College of Natural Resources, but the event drew in community members and students who had been wanting to attend the ball since last year.
Rachel Turley “I’ve been wanting to go since last year because it sounded really cool. Beards, flannel, lumberjacks, loggers,” said Rachel Talbert, a psychology major.
The beard contest is a favorite part of the event among attendees. This year, Audrey Van Valkenburg won the prize for “best fake beard.” Eric Ethington won “best real beard.” Roman Andrus won best beard overall.
Tim Woodruff, an organizer of the event, said the stress of planning the Logger’s Ball was worth it in the end.
“I’m a little bit of a control freak and so letting everyone else do their job and trusting them was hard, but then seeing it all come together and work well was really good,” he said. “It felt really hectic and stressful to put it all together, so it really feels like a win.”
— dillan.passmore@aggiemail.usu.edu
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