| Date Posted |
Scouting Facts |
| 1 July 2008 |
If a Boy Scout attends his weekly patrol and troop meeting, participates in a monthly weekend troop outing, and attends long-term summer camp with his troop, he will have spent as much time with Scouting in a year as he spends in the classroom. |
| 15 June 2008 |
Career-interest Exploring was introduced in 1959, and the program was opened to girls as well as boys ten years later. By the early 1970’s, more than 100,000 girls were Explorers and just about half of all posts centered their activities on a career or avocation. |
| 1 June 2008 |
The 12,441 foot summit of Baldy Mountain is the highest peak on BSA’s Philmont High Adventure Base. |
| 15 May 2008 |
In 1938, Waite Phillips, Tulsa, Oklahoma oil man gave 36,000 acres near Cimarron, New Mexico for development of what was first called Philturn Rocky Mountain Scout camp, now Philmont Scout Ranch. |
| 1 May 2008 |
The first Order of the Arrow members were inducted on July 16, 1915. Nationally, the Order of the Arrow ended 2007 with 171,894 members who provided 1,335,779 hours of service. |
| 15 April 2008 |
In 1928 Sea Scout Paul A. Siple was part of the Admiral Byrd expedition to Antarctica. |
| 1 April 2008 |
The Cub Scout program for younger boys began as a pilot project in several cities in August 1929. The first Cub Scout Pack charters were issued on April 1, 1930. |
| 15 March 2008 |
In 1931 the first Silver Beaver Awards were given for distinguished service to boys within local councils. |
| 1 March 2008 |
In 1916 the first 57 merit badge booklets were published and distributed. |
| 15 February 2008 |
On February 11, 1911, James E. West became the first Chief Scout Executive of the BSA and opened the national office at 200 Fifth Avenue in New York City. Mr. West served in that capacity until 1943. |
| 1 February 2008 |
On February 8, 1910, the Boy Scouts of America was incorporated in Washington D.C. by William D. Boyce. |
| 15 January 2008 |
Although the BSA has always stressed the importance of every person’s religious duty, there were no Scouting awards for service to God until 1939 when the BSA and the Roman Catholic Church established the first religious emblem program. Since then many other Christian denominations as well as Jewish, Buddhist and Moslem religious groups have launched similar programs. |
| 1 January 2008 |
Gerald Ford earned the rank of Eagle Scout in 1927 at the age of 14 and remained active in Scouting all his life even while he was President of the United States. |
| 15 December 2007 |
The BSA started Scouting magazine in 1913, as a bulletin for Scoutmasters and issued the first edition of the Handbook for Scoutmasters. |
| 1 December 2007 |
In July 1912, the BSA published its first issue of Boy’s Life magazine. Destined to become the nation’s largest publication for youth, Boy’s Life had been started in March 1911 by an 18-year old Rhode Island Scout named Joseph Lane. When the BSA bought it, the magazine had a circulation of 6,000 and the purchase price was $1 per subscriber. |
| 15 November 2007 |
In an advance edition of the 1911 handbook, three badges were announced – Life, Star, and Wolf. By publication time, the highest (Wolf) had been replaced by Eagle. |
| 1 November 2007 |
The first Boy Scout camp in the United States was held at Silver Bay on Lake George in upper New York State. Originally it had been planned as a Y.M.C.A. camp, with demonstrations by Ernest Thompson Seton of his Woodcraft Indians methods. However, by the time the two week camp opened on August 16, 1910, all the camp leaders were involved with the Boy Scouts of America so it turned into a Scout camp with an Indian flavor. |
| 15 October 2007 |
Ernest Thompson Seton, artist and wildlife expert, founded the Woodcraft Indians in 1902 to teach boys about the outdoors. In 1910, he became the first Chief Scout of the BSA and rushed out the organization’s first handbook. |
| 1 October 2007 |
Baden Powell, the founder of Scouting, was born on February 22, 1857 in England. He was actually christened Robert Stephenson Smyth Powell. His mother changed the family surname to Baden-Powell in 1869 (when young Stephe, as he as known in the family, was 12 years old). |
