Drippy Rock

Title: Drippy Rock

General Information about Item:

Informant Data:

Scott Bohn is a male Dartmouth student in the class of 2018, from Minnetonka, Minnesota. Scott was born in Mexico, but raised in Minnesota. At Dartmouth, he studies Computer Science and History, and plays club hockey. When he is older, his dream is to live in a cabin in the woods in Minnesota, next to a lake, with a dog. In his freshman summer, he participated in trail crew, a group of trail maintenance people based out of a cabin next to the Moosilauke Ravine Lodge. As a result, he went on many week-long backpacking trips in the outdoors to help repair trails for the Dartmouth Outing Club.

Contextual Data:

Social Context: This story was shared frequently between the trail maintenance crew and mentioned frequently during hikes up Mt. Moosilauke. This rock, which had water dripping from it, was used as a milestone on the hike up in addition to providing water for the crew.
Cultural Context: The legend of Drippy Rock was told when the informant was asked about any specific stories that he had from backpacking. Generally, water is collected from any stream or brook that can be found while hiking, and treated or filtered in some way to make it potable. Hikers also use landmarks to gauge how far they’ve come up the trail.

Item:

Drippy Rock served as a landmark and water source for hikers going up Mt. Moosilauke. It provided especially delicious water, according to the trail crew, and provided a special morale boost. Thus, the trail crew named the rock and eventually developed a strong affection for an item that served two purposes at once.

Associated file (a video, audio, or image file):

Relevant portion: [4:38 – 5:03]

Transcript of Associated File:

“So there was a particular rock on Ridge Trail in Moosilauke that we came to know as Drippy Rock and we came to love Drippy Rock because not only did it signify a milestone along the way towards the top of the mountain but it had very delicious water coming off of it that we refused to treat in any way because at that point.. Who cares? So Drippy Rock is a good friend of mine.”

Collector’s Comments:

I think this rock was a good morale boost due to the delicious water. It’s interesting how something as mundane as a rock with water can become a piece of folklore if the entire group shares enthusiasm about it.

Collector’s Name: Kyu Kim

Tags/Keywords:

Dartmouth Folklore Archive