Reed is notorious for our traditions, but few have the staying power of Canyon Day. Canyon Day dates to nearly the school’s inception, with our first records pointing to April 15, 1913. At the time, Albert Doyle submitted plans to transform the canyon into “an artful landscape of Tudor Gothic quadrangles and formal gardens.” When the college’s shoestring budget of the time made that impossible, focus shifted to adapting the canyon from a cow pasture and trickle of a stream to a recreational area.
Even the college president, William Trufont Foster, put his back into it:
In 1915, students excavated a ten foot deep swimming hole on the west side, complete with bathhouses. In the ’20s, a dam was built to make way for a formal swimming pool. In the ’50s, the north bank was excavated for the construction of cross-canyon dorms. A Quest article from `1955 reminds students that they would soon,
“have a chance to uphold a miss-clad tradition when they forsake the cloisters of academic learning to shoulder arms . . . against the common enemy. Weapons will be rakes, shovels, hoes, and related miscellany suitable for an attack on the defiled beauties of nature.”
Year by year, the community gathered with snacks, gloves, shears, and every once in a while, with a live band to cheer them on.
Over time, our approach to the canyon has evolved–it has been named part of the Johnson Creek Watershed in recognition of the headwaters of Crystal Springs Creek on the east end, and the canyon is now protected as 60 acres of habitat for urban wildlife. In ’01, the college constructed a fish ladder to re-establish connectivity between the lake and the lower creek, allowing access to the salmon spawning grounds. Opening day featured champagne and a timely spring downpour.
As such, a century into the tradition of Canyon Day, the focus is on planting native trees and shrubs, pulling out invasive plants, maintaining trails, and collecting debris.
In the area? Join the community on April 4, 2026 to get your hands dirty! We can’t promise a live band, but we can guarantee camaraderie and a day’s work to feel proud of.