Hosted by the University of Wisconsin Union team since 1940, and meant as a way to invite the university community to take part in outdoor recreation and celebrate the season, the Winter Carnival is one of the most iconic events on Madison’s Campus. At the end of the 1970s, this event was forever changed by the infamous Pail and Shovel Party.
In 1978, UW students Leon Varjian and Jim Mallon swept the Wisconsin Student Association elections, officially launching the tenure of the Pail and Shovel Party. This group of eccentric students, so named for their campaign promise to convert the university’s budget into pennies for students to collect on Library Mall with pails and shovels were best known for their passion of disrupting the peace, playing pranks, misusing funding, and general chaos. Their official campaign slogan, “Are you nuts enough?” was apt, as they ran on a set of outlandish promises that outlined their impending chaos, including installing escalators on Bascom Hill, flooding Camp Randall to host reenactments of historic naval battles (ala the Roman Colosseum), adding fluorescent paint to street curbs to guide inebriated students home from bars, and bringing the Statue of Liberty to Wisconsin. In their four years in power, the Pail and Shovel Party became an iconic group through their many colorful events, some of which still exist today. These surviving traditions serve as a reminder that students have the ability to impact their campus, no matter how unique their ideas may be.
While most of their campaign promises never materialized, they were able to make good on one of their promises—sort of. While the relocation of the Statue of Liberty from Liberty Island to Madison was an obvious impossibility, Varjian and Mallon found a creative way to deliver to students after they were elected. Using a rumored $2,000 in funds, the Pail and Shovel Party erected a Lady Liberty made out of 3,000 pounds of wood framework covered by a cotton cloth. Their version of Lady Liberty even had an operational torch lit by 1,600 watts worth of bulbs. Unlike today’s inflatable Lady Liberty which appears during Winter Carnival, the Pail and Shovel version was significantly more fragile. The original sculpture fell victim to an arson attack days after it was placed on the lake. Despite salvage efforts, only the arm and torch survived the attack. While the arsons, and their reasons for destroying the statue, were never discovered, Varjian and Malon saw the attack as an opportunity rather than defeat. The Pail and Shovel Party held a funeral for the statue with a wooden gravestone, a funeral wreath, a 21 toy-gun salute, and a singing of “America the Beautiful” by an estimated 200 mourners. Local news outlets picked up the story, which added to Pail and Shovel Party’s growing notoriety.
After they were re-elected in 1980, a second fireproof Lady Liberty was built, but the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources demanded this second version of the statue removed. The statue was stored for over a decade in a barn in Barneveld, and in 1995, an anonymous donor covered the cost of replacing the torch and repairing the crown. Repaired, the statue returned to Lake Mendota in 1996. It reappeared occasionally between 1996 and 2010, and was vandalized during its reassembly in February 2011 at which point the tradition stopped. However, the tradition was resurrected in 2019 with a new version of Lady Liberty made of a durable polyester fabric blend by Minnesota-based Landmark Creations. Today, Lady Liberty is a staple at the annual Winter Carnival, and students flock to Lake Mendota to celebrate with the statue.
The Pail and Shovel Party, along with the chaos they brought to UW-Madison, is a crucial part of the university’s history. While criticized by the administration and the general public for wasting student funds, the student body was relatively supportive of the group. While the Party disbanded after failing to be re-elected for a third term, their legacy continues through many of the traditions they started, including filling Bascom Hill with pink flamingoes, and flooding State Street on Halloween. While these traditions have transformed over the past five decades, the Pail and Shovel Party’s most lasting legacy may be the lingering ethos of the group, the way that these traditions remind college students to embrace the unconventional; as they just might be part of UW-Madison history one day.
Written by Peyton Prohuska, February 2025.
Sources
Gianofer Fields, “Lady of the Lake,” Radio Chipstone and WORT News. 4 February 2021. https://www.wortfm.org/radio-chipstone-lady-of-the-lake/
Cindy Foss, “History of Lady Liberty on Lake Mendota,” University of Wisconsin—Madison News. 16 February 2009. https://news.wisc.edu/history-of-lady-liberty-on-lake-mendota/
Roger Gribble, “Liberty Burned, May be Resurrected”. The Wisconsin State Journal. 1979.
Emily Hamer, “Flamingos, pranks and togas: Leon Varjian exhibit highlights Madison’s playful past,” University of Wisconsin—Madison News. 24 May 2017. https://news.wisc.edu/flamingos-pranks-and-togas-leon-varjian-exhibit-highlights-madisons-playful-past/
“It’s Back! 40 Years Later, Lady Liberty on Mendota,” University of Wisconsin—Madison News. 1 February 2019. https://news.wisc.edu/its-back-40-years-later-lady-liberty-on-mendota/
David Null, “Leon Varjian and the Pail and Shovel Party,” UW Madison Archives (Tumblr). https://www.tumblr.com/uwmadarchives/160779329904/leon-varjian-and-the-pail-and-shovel-party
“They are doing double takes along Madison’s Lake Mendota”, Wisconsin Newspaper Association. 1979.
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