All cardboard!: Colorado School of Mines holds annual boat race
The E-Days tradition has been around for 91 years
In a tradition that has lasted nearly 100 years, countless Colorado School of Mines students attempted to float down Clear Creek on Saturday morning in cardboard boats.
Some students, straddling boats of paper and duct tape, made it past the slightly torrential rifts in the creek. Some, with structures not strong enough to withstand the somewhat streaming water, crumbled.
Hundreds of watchers lined Clear Creek Whitewater Park in downtown Golden, cheering on the students regardless.
The college held its 91st annual Engineering Days (E-Days) festivities this weekend and the three-day celebration of the school semester culminated with the annual Cardboard Boat Races.
The races were followed by a fireworks show Saturday night, with School of Mines alumni helping design the show.
The Cardboard Boat Races are simple: create a cardboard boat that can take the passengers the furthest. Only cardboard and duct tape are allowed, but the tape is only allowed to be used as an adhesive, not a waterproofing material.
Simple, but difficult, with boats collapsing all over the creek.
“It’s an opportunity for the students to put their engineering skills to the test,” Audrey Weber, registered student organizations coordinator at the school, said. “It’s also an opportunity for them to have some fun and celebrate almost being at the end of the academic year.”
Weber called it a “rich tradition” that allows students to tap into the community.
“It’s got to work,” Crockett Stultz, a final year Geological Engineering student said next to his boat, El Skife. “At the end of the day, you’re just building a cardboard boat,” he said with a laugh.
“We’re all graduating this year, so it’s our last chance to do it,” Stultz said with his two boating partners. “Why not?”
The E-Days festivities also included a Prom Dress Rugby competition on Wednesday and an Ore Cart Pull down West Colfax Avenue on Friday in which students pulled a mine cart from Lakewood to Sculpture Park in Denver.
The last week of classes will kick off on April 28, with final exams taking place the next week. Commencements will be on May 8 and 9.
