Early history
editThe founding of the Boy Scouts in Arizona
edit
Boy Scouting was founded by Robert Baden-Powell in England and co-founded by the American Scout Major Frederick Russell Burnham.[1] Boy Scouting was brought to the United States by William D. Boyce. He incorporated the Boy Scouts of America on February 8, 1910. The Boy Scouts of America was chartered by Congress on June 15, 1916, This is the same year as the first Boy Scout Council in Arizona was formed with the Prescott Council.[2] Burnham served as the Honorary President of the Arizona Boy Scouts throughout the 1940s until his death in 1947.[1]
The first two Boy Scout troops in Arizona Territory were organized in Prescott, in September 1910 and in Tombstone at almost the same time.[3] In Prescott, E.P. Cole of Whipple Barracks was the first scoutmaster.[2] Arizona Territorial Historian Sharlot Hall was an honorary member of the Tombstone troop.[3] Scouting came to Phoenix in the fall 1910 with Clarence R. Craig as the scoutmaster.[2] Other scout troops were formed; in Bisbee in early 1911.[3] and in St. Joseph and Snowflake about the same time.[4]
Harold Steele, principal of the then new Tucson High School, organized the first Scout troop in Tucson on April 20, 1911.[3]
On November 29, 1911 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) organized the MIA Scouts along the lines recommended by the Boy Scouts of America as part of their Mutual Improvement Association youth program.[5] In March 1912, the LDS Church published their first lessons for the MIA Scouts in the Improvement Era. On May 21, 1913 the LDS Church was invited by the Boy Scout National Council to become the first Chartered Sponsored Organization in their movement.[6] The Boy Scouts of America program was then adopted in all LDS Church congregations as part of their youth program. Each LDS Church congregation in Arizona organized a scout troop.
In April 1921 the eight LDS troops in the Maricopa (LDS) Stake and the Methodist troop met in at the Coffee Cup in Mesa to organize the Apache Council.[7] This was the second council in Arizona. George A. Johnson was the first Council President. Edwin M. LeBaron was the first Field Commissioner.[8] Their first summer camp was held on Sycamore Creek near Payson, Arizona.[9]
On September 16, 1921, the board of the Apache Council met with scouters from Phoenix at the Tempe National Bank to reorganized into the Roosevelt Council, to be headquartered in Phoenix. Tim Murray from Galveston Texas, was the first professional Scout Executive.[10] The 1922 summer camp was at Pineair [11] (now call Reavis Ranch located in the Superstition Wilderness Area about 45 miles (72 km) east of Mesa).[12] The name, Camp Geronimo, is still used by the Grand Canyon Council camp although the location has changed several times. Throughout the 1940s, Frederick Russell Burnham served as the Honorary President of the Roosevelt Council Boy Scouts.
The Roosevelt Council changed its name to the Theodore Roosevelt Council. In 1993 the Theodore Roosevelt Council (located in Phoenix) and the Grand Canyon Council (located in Flagstaff) merged with the Phoenix council assuming the current name, the Grand Canyon Council. The Nassau County Council in New York was renamed to the Theodore Roosevelt Council in 1997.
Campaign to Save the Bighorn Sheep
editIn 1936, Boy Scouts in Arizona mounted a state-wide campaign to save the Bighorn Sheep. The Scouts first became interested in the sheep through the efforts of Major Frederick Russell Burnham. Burnham observed that fewer than 150 of these sheep still lived in the Arizona mountains. He called George F. Miller, then Scout Executive of the Phoenix Scout Council, with a plan to save the sheep. Burnham said,
I want you to save this majestic animal, not only because it is in danger of extinction, but of more importance, some day it might provide domestic sheep with a strain to save them from disaster at the hands of a yet unknown virus.[13]
Several other prominent Arizonans join the movement and a save the bighorns poster contest was started in schools throughout the state. Burnham provided prizes and appeared in store windows across Arizona. The contest-winning bighorn emblem was made up into neckerchief slides for the 10,000 Boy Scouts, and talks and dramatizations were given at school assemblies and on radio. The National Wildlife Federation, the Izaak Walton League, and the Audubon Society also joined the effort.[13]
These efforts led to the establishment on of two bighorn game ranges in Arizona: Kofa National Wildlife Refuge and Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge. On January 18, 1939, over 1,500,000 acres (6,100 km2) were set aside and a civilian conservation corp side camp was set up to develop high mountain waterholes for the sheep. The Desert Bighorn Sheep is now the official mascot for Arizona Boy Scouts.[which?][13]
References
- ^ a b Roosevelt Council Resolution, November 19, 1947
- ^ a b c "Home". Grand Canyon Council. 2014-01-01. Retrieved 2014-03-03.
- ^ a b c d "Home". The Otis H. Chidester Scout Museum of Southern Arizona, Inc. 4 September 2010. Retrieved 4 September 2010.
- ^ Oral history of Rial M. Randall to Dilworth C. Brinton Jr.
- ^ Scouting in the L.D.S. Church Scoutmasters Minute pub. YMMIA Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, 1934
- ^ Article in the (LDS) Improvement Era June 1953
- ^ Mesa Daily Tribune April 27, 1921 p. 1
- ^ Mesa Daily Tribune May 10, 1921 p.1
- ^ Mesa Daily Tribune August 2, 1921 p.1
- ^ Arizona Republican September 18, 1921 p.7
- ^ Mesa Daily Tribune June 16, 1922.p.1
- ^ Arizona Place Names, Will C. Barnes, The University of Arizona Press, 1960 p. 192
- ^ a b c Edward H. Saxton (March 1978). "Saving the Desert Bighorns". Desert Magazine. 41 (3). Retrieved April 27, 2008.