Maritime Transportation & Engineering

Cadets, Log Travel From Oslo to College Station for 1968 Bonfire

Texas A&M Maritime Academy Cadets load the 42-foot fir log purchased in Oslo

As our community honors the Aggies lost in the 1999 Bonfire collapse and the 12th Man prepares for the last football game of the season, we’re taking a look back at Galveston’s contributions to Bonfire over the last 60 years.

In the summer of 1968, Texas A&M Maritime Academy cadets on summer cruise in Oslo, Norway purchased a fir log, destined for the annual bonfire in College Station. Each student on board carved their name into the log, which the cadets wagered would be the largest (measuring at 42 feet) and farthest hauled (traveling 8,000 miles) on the stack.

With the help of a dockside crane in Oslo, they loaded it onto the Texas Clipper and began their voyage back to Galveston.

Upon their arrival to the island without any way to deliver it to College Station, then-Superintendent Craik took to the public for help. As a true testament to the tree-mendous strength of the Aggie Network, an entire fleet of trucks answered the call. The log was loaded onto an Atlas semi tractor trailer on Friday, arrived at the College Station campus on Monday, and was burned at Bonfire on Tuesday.