Read what other have said about the Crum Woods.

Click here to read the Bulletin story A Walk in the Woods by Susan Milius ’75

The Crum I remember...

I remember the wonder of finding ferns, horsetails,and lycopodiums-all spore-bearing plants with ancestry back over 300 million years to the coal swamps of Pennsylvania-a point of wonder for me that Robert Enders, Bill Denison, and Luzern Livingstone helped to expand on. Then, as an outing club member, I rappelled off the trestle but was not present when other members got arrested. Tom Webb '66   I fell in love in Crum woods. It changed my life. I lived happily ever after. Maggy Reno Hurchalla '62 As a child who went to school in Swarthmore from kindergarten through college, I remember ice skating on the frozen Crum. There was nothing better than starting by the falls and skating forever and back again. Cornelia "Terri" McCurdy Brown '71 When I was at Swarthmore (1973-77), there was a spring rite called Boogie Day celebrated in The Meadow on a date selected by a coin toss at midwinter. The celebration was not without elements of the wildness common both to traditional spring rites and college campuses in the '70s. I remember one year the event happened to coincide with Parents' Day, which somehow occasioned a call to the local constabulary about "naked people in the woods." We were certainly surprised to see a Swarthmore police car drive down the dirt track and into The Meadow. The officer riding shotgun rolled down his window and asked about the "naked people." One celebrant smiled his most philosophical smile and said, "We're all naked under our clothes." The cop smiled back, rolled up his window, and left. Peter Hille '77 My happiest memories of the Crum are unprintable. Clarke Peyton (Peter) Conway '51 I didn't spend much time in Crum Woods. Didn't even do any skulking there. I do remember the tug-of-war across Crum Creek between our freshman Class of '44 and the sophomores of '43. I think we pulled them across, but then they threw us all into the mud. William "Bill" Busing, '44 (accelerated and graduated in fall of '43) I walked in Crum Woods a lot. I always sought out the wildest places within walking distance of where I lived. In Chicago, where I grew up, it was Lake Michigan. At Swarthmore, it was Crum Woods. I walked there during the day to find solace and peace and life unfettered by humans (as much as possible). I walked there at night when I was lonely or sad and daring. Vera Wong '75 Our lovely woods make a marvelous environment for chatting, wandering up and down and having fun reading the placards on the trees. Tree name tags are an excellent way to cover up silences in the conversation. Indeed, all of the Crum is a conversation piece. Walking there allows us to be with nature and friends in a wonderful, harmonious, peaceful interlude, before panicking once again at the sight of the buildings and the books. Ted Nelson '59 I don't know that the violets are still there, or even the hemlocks, but the area in its primitive state constituted a natural area (one of the "last great places" as the Nature Conservancy now says) well worth saving and using for teaching and research and for restoring the soul in a way that can never be attained after "development" of the area has changed it irrevocably. I hope the College has used it wisely. Rogers McVaugh '31   Click here to read more Crum memories   Click here to return to the Bulletin's current issue

Copyright © 2001 Swarthmore College. Publications Office Swarthmore College, 500 College Avenue, Swarthmore, PA, 19081 Phone: (610) 328-8415| Email: bulletin@swarthmore.edu