Editor’s note: In Retrospect features articles from significant points in the history of Iowa State. This article ran in the Iowa State Daily on May 15, 1951.

Vandals Torch Five Veishea Floats

Police are still searching today for the vandals responsible for the burning of five Veishea floats during the weekend festivities.

Three unidentified men in an unidentified automobile are all the leads police have to work on.

Sam Long, Ames fire chief, reported it was the first time in his 37 years with the fire department that Veishea floats have been destroyed by fire.

“There were four fires that we put out, but that is about all we can say as yet,” Long said.

Three of the fire calls came within an hour and 15 minutes early Sunday morning.

At 2:30 a.m. firemen rushed to the Delta Sigma Phi fraternity house, 218 Ash Avenue, to extinguish the first blaze on the fraternity’s “Toonerville Trolley.”

The float was parked south of the adjoining Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity house.

“The paper burned completely,” said Jerry Mills, Ag. So., “and the wood was severely scorched.” In addition, the paint on the car beneath the float was burned off in places.

Almost at the same moment, 2:32 a.m., another truck was called to the Farm House fraternity house, 311 Ash Avenue. There the fraternity’s “Prospecting for Knowledge” float was ablaze. Only the float burned, according to Charles Richard Cornell, Jr. The fire was extinguished just three feet from the gas tank of a tractor beneath the float.

At 3:42 a.m. firemen got the third call from Beta Theta Pi fraternity house, 2120 Lincoln Way. The Beta’s “Had to Come Back for Veishea” float was almost completely destroyed before the fire was extinguished. The float which depicted Santa Claus and eight white reindeer, won the second prize trophy in the fraternity division of the Veishea parade.

Members of the fraternity said the first thing they knew of the blaze was “when Chief Long came to the door and told us. We were all pretty tired,” they said, “and didn’t see the fire at all.”

Police got their first lead on the series of fires when three coeds told Chief Long they saw three men in a green automobile throw a flaming object at the Delta Zeta sorority float, 2138 Sunset Drive, at 8 p.m. Sunday. Chief Long surmised that the flaming object must have been clothes soaked in kerosene.

The front half of the float, which consisted of a pink elephant and was called “A Fair to Remember,” was badly burned, but the back half was made of non-inflammable crepe paper. The blaze also badly burned the wagon on which the float was built, according to Joy Pifko, H. Ec. Jr.

The fifth fire occurred sometime around 2:15 a.m. Monday. Kappa Alpha Theta’s “Polly Wants An Education” float, parked at the sorority’s house, 2339 Knapp Street, was saved by its fireproof paper. However, the top of it was badly charred.

Jack Focht, E. Jr., discovered the fire, but a call for the fire department wasn’t necessary. Members of the sorority were unaware of the fire until they awoke yesterday morning.

Several other fraternities and sororities have burned their own floats, it is reported, in an effort to avoid the work of vandals.

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Daily Staff Writer Jamie Lange compiled this report.