Upon the news of an impending snow blizzard, the Stevens community was quick to plan ways to make use of time in the snow and out of classes. Starting the weekend before the storm, Hart Welles started a Facebook event to create a snow fort that would be better than any created in Steven’s history, an idea expected to come from a school full of engineers. The event quickly spread with over a hundred and twenty people RSVPing for the event.
It came as a surprise to everyone when the “Snowpocalypse” turned out to be only a few inches of snow rather than the expected 20 to 30 inches.
Nevertheless, the lack of snow did not discourage the building of the fort. Hart went out to scout a location for the fort and found that snow had been piled up in the eighth street parking lot.
From here groups of people came all day long averaging at about five people working on the fort at a time, but a total of about 40 people either stopped to help or just go inside. One such person was Dean Kenneth Nilsen of Student Life, who helped shovel and entered the snow fort.
An array of shovels, dorm garbage pales, wheeled garbage cans, and more were brought out to move the snow across the parking lot to the fort location. The Physical Plant provided help using plows on both a truck and a quad. Several concerns came from campus police and members of the Stevens community that this fort might be either dangerous or misplacing the snow after a long night of hard work plowing it up from the parking lot. It became clear that the fort would be built considerately and would not impede on any walkways or parking spots of the lot.
The fort reached about 8 feet high and about 9 feet wide. The entrance was a tunnel that people needed to crawl through, however, once on the inside it was possible to stand up in the hollowed out dome of snow. A couch was built into the wall that could fit approximately six people.
The original plan for the fort included ideas such as a slide, bridge over the walkway, Christmas lights, and multiple rooms. This proved difficult due to the less than expected amount of snow and the fact that despite the amount of people who said they would show up, only a select few turned out to work.
The fort is still standing in the parking lot, however it is starting to shrink and the appeal slips away for those who have been in and seen it. The question remains if the fort will continue to grow with the approaching storms to follow and who will show up to help shape it into something greater than before.
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