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February 7, 2010
WOLF CREEK HERITAGE MUSEUM NOTES by Virginia Scott MUSEUM HAPPENINGS A very quiet and beautiful week with very few visitors and allot of snow. I got some great photos and will continue to try to send them to Stan so he can post on our website. With more snow arriving last night (Sunday), our view of the museum is again very white and gorgeous. The snow heavy with moisture however tried to melt some yesterday and sled into our gutter above the front door and refroze last night tearing the gutter and poising a snow hazard above our heads when entering the museum. I hope it melts today but don't think so if predictions are correct. I hope like last week , all of you are enjoying the snow from the warmth of your homes. We are working our our book projects and stories are starting to arrive so I hope all of you are busy writing. The projects are proceeding on schedule. Remember you get a price discount if you order your book before we publish. I am working on our annual report for the county commission and for the state. I will summarize in the column when complete. The student art exhibit has three more weeks so be sure to come see it soon. Higgins and Darrouzett schools will visit this week, weather permitting. HISTORICAL MUSINGS Today, February 8th is the 100th birthday for the The Boy Scouts of America (BSA). Founded in Chicago by William Boyce, publisher. At the time in the U.S., there were several other loosely structured outdoor -oriented youth organizations, some using the name "Boy Scout" and some using other names. and there were already a number of troops in existence using some variation of the British Scout program founded in 1907-08 by General Robert Baden-Powell. Boyce's key contribution was to organize the BSA as a business. He incorporated the organization (in Washington), recruited key youth professionals (mainly the YMCA) to design and operate the program. and he provided key funding for the organization. Three additional men assisted Boyce in developing the BSA. Ernest Thompson Seton, James West, and Daniel Beard. Mr. Seton became the first Chief Scout (1910 -1915) . He considered himself to be the real founder of the World Scouting movement. In the introduction in the first boy scout handbook he wrote "In 1904, I went to England to carry on the work of fostering a woodcraft and scouting movement there, and , knowing General R.S.S. Baden-Powell as the chief advocate of scouting in the British Army, invited him to cooperate with me, in making the movement popular. Accordingly, in 1908 he organized his boy scout movement, incorporating the principle of the Indians (Seton's group) with other ethical features. West was recruited in 1911 as the Executive Secretary. He soon changed his title to Chief Scout Executive. He created a well-organized national structure that was a key to the BSA's growth and reputation. He remained with the BSA from 1911 to 1943. West and Seton had conflicting ideas on how the BSA should be developed and Seton was forced out of the organization in 1915. Today, Scouting is found in 185 countries and is considered the most successful youth movement. Lipscomb County has had troops in all of our towns with only Booker remaining. In an issue of the Higgins News in 1959 , we found that the Higgins Boy Scouts participated in the Kiowa District Buckskin Camporee south of Follett on April 17-18, 1959, and entered the Scoutcraft field events. They won the Buckskin Trophy from the Adobe Walls Council for the best troop average. They also won the National Proficient ribbon for meeting national patrol standards in Scoutcraft skills. The troop included Willis Smith, Senior Patrol Leader, J.D. Barton, Patrol Leader, Dean Bay, Patrol Leader, Mark Goettshe, Jerry Bernaud, Bill Trosper, Haskell McLane, Ronnie Johnson, Rhamey Morrison, Robert Miller, Billy Hunt, Jim Slavin, Bobby Ely, Rod Immel, and Gary Laubhan. Alva Bernaud, Scoutmaster, and Kenneth McAdoo, assistant Scout Master. Carl Goetsche and Elzie Immel spent the night with the boys returning to Higgins on Saturday morning. Happy Birthday all of you present and past Boy Scouts. |
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