Bonfire memorial

While in College Station we visited the Bonfire memorial. What a site to see. I don't know if you have to be an Aggie to truly appreciate it or not, but what a sense of pride and "pain" I felt while being there. I was attending school when bonfire fell in 1999. I didn't know anyone who was injured or died, but did go to the site and see people being rescued and was able to feel the true meaning of being an "Aggie".

For those of you who don't know here's a quick history lesson....

A massive bonfire, which consists of tiered level (kind of a wedding cake style--sorry guys that I am referring to a manly thing with the words wedding cake attached) made of several thousand large tree trunks, I think it's 50-55 feet high. It burns yearly in November just before the A&M/Texas game to symbolize our "burning" desire to beat Texas.
November 18, 1999 this huge structure fell, killing 12 students. They have built and burned bonfires since then, but it has not been on campus and has not been school sponsored.

The memorial was built on the exact site where bonfire fell.

Here's the entrance to the memorial.

This is a huge wall that has "The Last Corps Trip" poem by P.H. Du Val Jr. '51

I absolutely love this poem, again, I think you have to be an Aggie, to really enjoy, b/c it's about Aggies, but if you get a chance, look it up and read it. I couldn't really fit it into the picture well enough for you to read it here.

This is the actual site of the bonfire, each door represents a person who died. The doors face the hometowns of where they are from. Inside each of those doors, is a smaller bronze door and carved in there is the photo along with that persons signature and carved letters from family and friends and other sayings or maybe things about that person. It is a great way to get to "know" that person and see who they would have been or what they were like.

This is located in the center of the circle, it is the exact location of center pole (it's what would hold up the bonfire-kind of). It has the date and time that bonfire fell. I'm not exactly sure the significance of the coins. We have tradition at one of our other statues on campus to place a penny on it for good luck on a test. So, I'm not sure if that is the reasoning here, or if it's something else.

If you are ever in College Station and need something to do, I highly recommend stopping off to see this. Even if you don't really know what it's about.