Innovation lights Starvation Gulch 2025

Story and photos by Aaron Thomas

Columns of flames erupt from the bonfires.

Every year in Fairbanks summer goes out in a blaze at Starvation Gulch. In a long-standing tradition, giant structures made of pallets and plywood are constructed by various departments and student organizations across campus and set alight to kick off the school year and herald the coming winter. 

Originally inspired by the first University of Alaska Fairbanks president Charles E. Bunnell in 1923, Starvation Gulch was meant to symbolize passing the torch of knowledge to the next class. With each passing year, Starvation Gulch endures and takes on a new shape as students make it their own.

The event is organized by the Nanook Traditions Board, a student-lead group that manages large-scale events and planning at UAF. The Traditions Board runs other notable events such as the Winter Carnival and SpringFest.

The bonfires cast an orange glow on everything in view.

Starvation Gulch has a tumultuous history and has changed significantly over the years, mainly due to safety issues. The first iterations of the event constructed entire towns made of pallets that could reach heights of 75 feet. In 1948, it was commonplace to blast shotguns into the air to scare off potential wood thieves during construction. The UAF alcohol ban - that began in 1956 - was put into place after a drunken brawl engulfed the event, which led to the creation of the iconic “Tradition Stone” that served as a grave marker for student’s stashes of alcohol. 

Onlookers watch as the flames grow.

The whereabouts of the Tradition Stone have been the subject of much debate. The stone has changed hands dozens of times, being stolen by various campus groups and kept hidden from the university. Though rumors of the stone’s sighting have periodically circulated, it has been years since the stone has made a public appearance at Starvation Gulch.

Builds are now judged by their creativity and ingenuity, and the size of the wood piles have been scaled back significantly.

Construction of the wooden sculptures began at 10 a.m., where trucks stacked to the brim with pallets entered the parking lot as volunteers began building structures. Dozens of hard-hat cladded students and faculty members methodically stacked pallets as the designs began to take shape. The College of Engineering and Mines and the University Fire Department had the two central builds which dominated the view. The College of Engineering and Mines had a sprawling rectangular build of sloped pallets while the University Fire Department had a vertically stacked pile with the Departments emblem painted on a large sheet of plywood at the front. 

The College of Engineering and Mines builds their pallet structure.

The Honors College and ASUAF had a large sign inscribed on their build: “WHAT’S A SEAWOLF?” and an icon of the rival university's mascot as a playful taunt toward this year’s athletic season. Other organizations represented included Chi-Alpha and the Table Top Role Playing Game Club.

In years past, the structures have been lit by flamethrowers or torches. However, this year featured a new ignition system created as an engineering senior design project. The system consisted of a series of ziplines suspended from bucket lifts that carried flaming gondolas to the base of the structures to ignite them. 

Matthew Crisafi-Lurtsema, one of the lead designers of the system, said the fire marshall wanted a safer method for ignition. He proposed a series of safety constraints such as avoiding volatile fuels and challenged the engineering students in the senior design project class to design the optimal system.

“We had all kinds of different ideas, but this is the one that stuck the most and we presented it to the rest of the class and the fire marshal liked that the most,” Crisafi-Lurtsema said. After an initial test with a hay bale, the system was ready to light the bonfires.

Roger Jaramillo tests the remote ignition system.

“It feels like an over-engineered solution to yeah throw a match on it but I think it's exciting. It gets students involved like and it's out of the ordinary. I think this whole event is sort of about that,” said Crisafi-Lurtsema.

As the sun set and the skies darkened, crowds from the earlier volleyball game and foodtruck rally funneled over to the Nenana parking lot. People lined up at the orange construction fence that boarded the section of the parking lot full of pallet structures. 

The multitude of attendees cheered on amidst the countdown to ignition as a collective sense of pyromania heightened. At 9 p.m., the flaming gondolas descended, and with a little encouragement from the University Fire Department, all the fires were lit as the long day’s construction work went up in flames.

As the blaze grew so did the crowd's enthusiasm. When the fires reached their peak, the heat was so intense that people had to take a few steps back even though they were hundreds of feet from the flames. For a moment the darkness transformed into blazing daylight with the fires illuminating everything. 

 As the night went on, people moved to the dance floor where DJ Siren blasted music and lights through the smoke filled air. Even as the fires burned down, the intensity of the night continued until the event concluded around 11:00 pm.

Like many time-honored traditions at UAF, Starvation Gulch represents a cycle beginning anew. With the use of a new ignition system, engineering students had the opportunity to blend tradition with innovation to create something entirely unique. Though the specifics of the event change with time, Starvation Gulch endures!