{"id":3941,"date":"2026-03-19T10:27:59","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T17:27:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/riffin_griffin\/?p=3941"},"modified":"2026-02-24T10:45:34","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T18:45:34","slug":"more-than-a-century-of-canyon-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/riffin_griffin\/2026\/03\/more-than-a-century-of-canyon-day\/","title":{"rendered":"More than a century of Canyon Day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Reed is notorious for our traditions, but few have the staying power of Canyon Day<\/a>. Canyon Day dates to nearly the school\u2019s inception, with our first records pointing to April 15, 1913. At the time, Albert Doyle submitted plans to transform the canyon into \u201can artful landscape of Tudor Gothic quadrangles and formal gardens.\u201d When the college\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Campus Day work across the canyon with a pair of horses to help, 1913. Most of the students and faculty are clearing ground with rakes or hoes.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Even the college president, William Trufont Foster, put his back into it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Campus Day near the Reed Lake dam, circa 1914. Students and faculty are clearing logs out of the Canyon Lake. President William T. Foster is in the water, pushing a log.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In 1915, students excavated a ten foot deep swimming hole on the west side, complete with bathhouses.\u00a0In the \u201920s, a dam was built to make way for a formal swimming pool. In the \u201950s, the north bank was excavated for the construction of cross-canyon dorms. A Quest <\/em>article from `1955 reminds students that they would soon, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

“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.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Year by year, the community gathered with snacks, gloves, shears, and every once in a while, with a live band to cheer them on. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Canyon Day, April 1962. A student German Band is playing in the rain at 6:30 a.m., probably outside of the Old Dorm Block.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over time, our approach to the canyon has evolved\u2013it 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 \u201901, 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A snowy day in the Canyon, featuring the Reed College Fish Ladder, circa 2009<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Canyon Day, April 4, 2010. Students are making piles of weed debris behind the Studio Art Building.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the area? Join the community on April 4, 2026 to get your hands dirty! We can\u2019t promise a live band, but we can guarantee camaraderie and a day\u2019s work to feel proud of. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reed is notorious for our traditions, but few have the staying power of Canyon Day. Canyon Day dates to nearly the school\u2019s inception, with our first records pointing to April 15, 1913. At the time, Albert Doyle submitted plans to transform the canyon into \u201can artful landscape of Tudor Gothic quadrangles and formal gardens.\u201d When … Continue reading More than a century of Canyon Day<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2891,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[188,187,186],"tags":[175,225,205,197,114],"class_list":["post-3941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campus","category-oldereed","category-traditions","tag-campus","tag-canyon-day","tag-community","tag-reed-traditions","tag-tradition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/riffin_griffin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/riffin_griffin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/riffin_griffin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/riffin_griffin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2891"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/riffin_griffin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3941"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/riffin_griffin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3947,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/riffin_griffin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3941\/revisions\/3947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/riffin_griffin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/riffin_griffin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.reed.edu\/riffin_griffin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}