OCR Text |
Show Boy Scouts of America and Utah Celebrating Birthday This Week On Feb. 8, The Boy Scouts of America was 72 years old. National Scouting Week has been celebrating that fact from Feb. 7 and will continue until Feb. 14. A year after national scouting was organized in New York State, scouting in Utah was organized in Salt Lake City. The first South Central Utah scout troop was organized in Sevier County in 1913. That council later expanded to include Sanpete, Sevier, Piute, Wayne and Garfield Counties, according to the book, Our Own Sevier. That's the history of scouting in this area in a nutshell, here it is in detail: In March of 1913, four Richfield youngsters approached Roy Chldester and asked him if he would be their scoutmaster, After reading' the Scout Handbook, he consented and Troop I was organized with Salisbury Andelin, Chese Skougaard, I eland Chidester, and Gordin Goodih. Roy served as scoutmaster for 21' years cfter that time. From 1913 to 1925 Boy Scout Troops, for boys from ages 12-17, were organized throughout the valley. In 1917, Venice and Sigurd started Scouting. By 1920, Annabella had 22 fully uniformed boys. In 1914, Central ward created a troop with Willard Stevenson as scoutmaster and in that same year two Aurora men, J. E, Day and Edwin Sorensen attended a scout training course at Snow College in Ephraim. Day is the father of the present Council Chief Scout Executive, Fred Dayl. Kendrick Harward, Richfield Mayor and stake patriarch, was in the first registered troop in Aurora in 1925. By 1920, Troop I of Richfield numbered 60 boys and was divided, and by 1954 six Richfield Wards had troops. In 1958, the Community Church sponsored a troop for their boys and the Indians living at the dormitory. Also during 1917 1918, troops began in Monroe and Salina and Glenwood wards. In the early 1920s, the Oryce Canyon Council was organized to include Sanpete, Sevier, Piute, Wayne and Garfield Counties. In 1936, this council joined the Timpanogas and Zions Park Councils to become the Utah National Parks Council, now one of the largest in the nation. The council was divided into districts and Sevier County had North Sevier, Fishlake, and Sigurd Peak which continued until 1961 when all three were merged into present Fishlake District. Many leaders have served through the years as scoutmasters, district leaders, and executives with literally tens of thousand volunteered hours of time. At present, Dr. D. O. Larson and William Pratt serve as council vice presidents with Raymond Hendrickson serving on the executive committee. Camping has always been one of the main parts of scouting and those early troops all went on a week to two week long "annual" every summer. Popular camps were Fish'ake, Johnson Reservoir, Ximberly, Fish Creek, Maple Grove, and Gooseberry. The trips would be made with teams of horses, trek carts, or backpacks. As many as 50-60 boys would be ac-companed by one leader and make their own tables, chairs and all the comforts of home. They did their own cooking, including making bread and bottling wild berries to take home. Today, boys are driven to camp in air-conditioned cars and most would never be able to pack all their gear on their backs. The same ideals of Scouting apply however, and citizenship, character building, adventure, physical fitness and advancement are all a part of the camping experience, In 1928, the LDS church organized the Vangaurd program for older boys and In 1932, the Boy Scouts of America adopted It as the Explorer program. In 1953, a Cub Scout Pack was organized In Richfield and In 1978 the first of our Varisty Scout Teams were sponsored. At present, there are 1,348 boys registered in 109 units In the Fishlake District. i |