Above: Indian War Veterans Reunion, August 3, 1906. Photo taken next to the Noyes Building.
to surface from this period was the account that many of the residents collected their Sunday eggs and contributed them to the building committee to assist in the construction costs. Based on the value of eggs at the time, at six cents a dozen, the financial impact of the Sunday eggs was negligible, but the fact remains that the construction of the Academy had widespread support. The generous community investment demonstrated their commitment to ensure that the Academy would survive, and the Academy–now a college–grew. The Snow Academy Building was partially occupied but finally finished and dedicated on November 5, 1909. In 1945, in honor of the 29 years of service that Newton Noyes gave to Snow College, the building was renamed the Noyes Building. In December of 1903, the three Grecian muses (religion, science, and art) were placed on the building’s front gable, showing the values and expectations of the founders and Snow College’s goals of excellence today.
The Spanish Flu Comes to Sanpete; Snow College Gets a Mascot World War I brought changes to the local community and to Snow College. As the war ended, an international epidemic of Spanish Influenza swept across the United States, killing thousands of Americans. The first flu cases in Sanpete County were reported in October 1918. Citizens were
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urged to wear gauze masks as a precautionary measure. When four cases of influenza were diagnosed in Manti on October 12, 1918, town officials declared a quarantine that closed churches, Sunday schools, public schools, theatres, ward meetings, picture shows, fraternal meetings, dances, and all public gatherings. This, of course, included classes at Snow College. Classes would not resume until January of the coming year due to statewide Department of Health closures being enforced for all schools. As the struggles of the First World War gave way to the Roaring Twenties, Snow College began to take the shape that we recognize today. The large white “S” that proudly sits on the hillside at the entrance of Ephraim Canyon was created by the class of 1926. Ralph Booth from the Snow College Music Department directed the orchestra and band and offered a jazz program featuring a dance orchestra—a first among Utah colleges. In 1924, one of the football coaches, Ike Young, asked his players what they wanted to call themselves. Eddie Issacson made a motion that “we call ourselves the ‘Badgers’—a ferocious animal known to almost everyone in Sanpete.” Ray Noyes seconded the motion, the football club voted in favor of it, and a Snow College mascot was born. President Milton H. Knudsen was a Badger fan from Wisconsin, which assured that the Snow College Badger had a good start, and that it remains even to this day.
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