Dating to 1908 (one legend has it that students discovered it in a campus barn), the hatchet soon became a source of school pride and a gift handed down each year from the senior class to the juniors. But tradition soon turned to hijinks, as students plotted repeatedly to steal it, hiding the hatchet (allegedly) over the years behind a radiator in Jones Hall, in a hollowed-out textbook somewhere in Collins Memorial Library, and even off campus, in the attics and closets of Logger grads. A replica, currently on display in Wheelock Student Center, was comissioned in 2006, and shows the inscriptions of class years, beginning with the Class of 1908, that cover both sides of the hatchet. The original, returned to campus in 2008, is in fragile condition and is safely tucked away under lock and key in an undisclosed campus location.
