Scouting in Colorado
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Scouting in Colorado has a long history, from the 1910s to the present day, serving thousands of youth in programs that suit the rugged, mountainous environment in which they live.
[edit] Early history (1910-1950)
Scouting got a brisk start in Colorado. The Denver Council was founded in 1915, and in 1926 changed its name to the Denver Area Council, which it remains to this day.
The Colorado Springs Council was founded in 1916, and in 1922 changed its name to the El Paso and Teller Counties Council. That council in 1925 changed its name to Pikes Peak Council, which it remains to this day. Pikes Peak Council is home to the oldest continually-chartered troop in the state of Colorado, Troop 2, originally chartered to Colorado Springs' First Presbyterian Church in October, 1917.
The Greeley Council was founded in 1916, and in 1924 changed its name to the Weld and Morgan Counties Council. That council in 1928 changed its name to Longs Peak Council, which it remains to this day. The Fort Collins Council and Longmont Council, each founded in 1917, merged in 1919 into what is now the Longs Peak Council. The Boulder Council, also created in 1917, was merged in to the Council in 1920. The Southeastern Wyoming Council of Cheyenne merged into Longs Peak Council in 1928.
The Trinidad-Las Animas County Council, founded in 1917, changed its name to the Las Animas County Council in 1924. This and the Arkansas Valley Council, founded in 1924, merged in 1927 to become the Spanish Peaks Council. The Pueblo Council was founded in 1920, and in 1928 changed its name to the Rocky Mountain Council, which it remains to this day. The Spanish Peaks Council merged into Rocky Mountain Council in 1932.
The Western Colorado Council was founded in 1942, and is one of the very few councils that have not undergone a namechange or merger in their entire history.
[edit] Recent history (1950-1990)
International Girl Scout gatherings named Senior Roundups were held every three years from 1956 until 1965.[1] The National Girl Scout Roundup was held from July 3 to July 12, 1959 adjacent to the site of the then-new United States Air Force Academy north of Colorado Springs, attended by 10,000 girls.
Pikes Peak Council served as host to the 1960 National Scout Jamboree, held north of Colorado Springs adjacent to the United States Air Force Academy, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Boy Scouts of America.
[edit] Scouting in Colorado today
There are six Boy Scouts of America local councils and five Girl Scout councils in Colorado.
[edit] Denver Area Council
The Denver Area Council (61) of the Boy Scouts of America is headquartered in Denver, Colorado, with a satellite office in Greenwood Village, and supports Scouting units and youth in an area of central Colorado from Arapahoe and Adams Counties east to the Continental Divide.
- Arapahoe District
- Centennial District
- Gateway District
- Frontier District
- Timberline District
- Valley District
- Pioneer Trails District
The Pioneer Trails District is a new district, formed in 2004. It broke off from the Arapahoe District, which was deemed by the council to be too large.
The Denver Area Council operates camps in two locations in Colorado. The primary camp, Peaceful Valley Scout Ranch, is located in Elbert, Colorado. The second, smaller camp, is Camp Tahosa, located near Nederland, Colorado.
[edit] Tahosa High Adventure Base
Camp Tahosa is a camp near Nederland, Colorado, serving the Denver Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America. It was the primary camp for the Denver area until the 1960s, when it was shut down because of damage caused by environmental factors. It was replaced by Peaceful Valley Scout Ranch. The camp was recently re-opened as a High Adventure Base. The High Adventure Treks from Camp Tahosa lead Scouts into the adjacent forest.
[edit] Tahosa High Adventure Base Camping Programs
Tahosa is home to six separate camping programs, Alpine Adventure, Tahosa Trek, OKPIK, The Challenge (COPE), Big Horn National Youth Leadership Training and EaglePoint.
[edit] Alpine Adventure
Alpine Adventure is a six night mountaineering adventure in the high country of Colorado, combining the training facilities of Tahosa High Adventure Base with the lakes and vistas of the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area. The Scout will be members of a 12-person team, learning and applying skills to conquer the strenuous challenges of the program in a dynamic mountain environment.
[edit] Tahosa Trek
Started in 1995 to provide a basic knowledge of backpacking/low impact camping, the program now offers more advanced training and longer, customized treks for the units of the Boy Scouts of America.
[edit] OKPIK
A weekend extreme winter camping experience design to train Scouts in winter survival.
[edit] The Challenge (COPE)
The Challenge is part of the National COPE program that encourages youth and adults to expand mental creativity, increase physical abilities, promote leadership skills and instill personal confidence.
[edit] Big Horn National Youth Leadership Training Course
Big Horn NYLT Course is an intense weeklong youth oriented leadership training experience held for five weeks during the summer. Each week, highly qualified youth staff under the supervision of adult advisors conducts this leadership training using the National Youth Leadership Training Course syllabus, as published by the National Council, Boy Scouts of America. The course models a month in the life of a troop – three meetings (one each day for the first three days) leading to an outdoor experience (the overnight outpost camp). The course uses the patrol method and presents model Patrol Leader Council and Troop meetings. Patrols are challenged early in the week to present to the troop at the end of the week their “Quest for the Meaning of Leadership.” While the challenge is designed to have them go through the four stages of team development, it will help patrols and individual Scouts internalize the leadership skills and concepts being presented to them along the way. Throughout the course, the staff will be modeling the concepts and skills that are the core content of the course. The focus of each session is not only knowledge, but also giving Scouts a “Toolbox of Skills” that equips them with the “how” of Scouting leadership.
[edit] EaglePoint
EaglePoint is the newest addition to Tahosa. Founded in 2000 at Peaceful Valley Scout Ranch, EaglePoint is a troop run camp with access to the Tahosa High Adventure Base facilities. With a small staff, troops can build their own schedule and do whatever they would like for their week at camp.
[edit] Peaceful Valley Scout Ranch
Peaceful Valley Scout Ranch is the main camping location of the Denver Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America. The camp, built in the 1960's by the U.S. Navy, was a replacement to the original camp, Camp Tahosa. The camp is located just outside of Elbert, Colorado.
[edit] Peaceful Valley Camping Programs
Peaceful Valley Scout Ranch is home to four separate camps, Camp Cris Dobbins, Camp Cortland Dietler, Magness Adventure Camp, and EaglePoint.
Facilities include the Travis Shooting Sports Facility, which contains an olympic shotgun shooting range, the Gates Aquatic Center, a horse corral, BB Gun range, two lakes, and the four above mentioned camps.
[edit] Camp Cris Dobbins
Cris Dobbins is the flagship camp of Peaceful Valley. The camp is home to The Travis Shooting Facility, which includes an olympic shotgun range, the million dollar Gates Aquatic Center, a dining hall, and over around twenty campsites. The camp, with a capacity of around 400 campers, offers dozens of merit badges and programs for scouts of all ages.
[edit] Camp Dietler
Camp Dietler, founded in 1988 by William Eck, is a patrol style summer camp experience. While merit badges are offered, the main foucus is on the patrol method. This is carried out through patrol cooking, events determined by the patrol leader's council, and several high adventure outposts. The camp is named for Cortland Dietler, who donated the money to build the camp commissary.
[edit] Magness Adventure Camp
Magness Adventure Camp is the Denver Area Council's Cub Scouts camp. The camp has three shelters, each with a campsite housing eighty tents. The program includes lake activities, a BB Gun range, an archery range, and a tower that overlooks Elbert County. The camp is also available for rental by outside groups, and is often frequented by groups such as Denver's High School ROTC and girls groups from the Latter Day Saints Church.
[edit] EaglePoint
EaglePoint is the newest addition to Peaceful Valley. Founded in 2000, EaglePoint is a troop run camp with access to the Peaceful Valley facilities. With a small staff, troops can build their own schedule and do whatever they would like for their week at camp.
[edit] Tahosa Lodge 383, Order of the Arrow
The Tahosa Lodge 383, chartered in 1948, serves 1218 Arrowmen as of 2004. The lodge totem is a coney (rock hyrax), and the name translates to "Dwellers on the Mountain Tops" in the Kiowa language.
[edit] Girl Scouts-Mile Hi Council
The Girl Scouts-Mile Hi Council is based in Denver, Colorado.
[edit] Great Southwest Council
Main article: Scouting in New Mexico
The Great Southwest Council serves the Durango and Mesa Verde areas of Colorado.
[edit] Longs Peak Council
The Longs Peak Council (62) of the Boy Scouts of America is headquartered in Greeley, Colorado. Named after the tallest peak in the council territory, Longs Peak Council serves Scouting youth in northeastern Colorado north of Denver, southeastern Wyoming and the panhandle of western Nebraska, and is chartered by BSA to organize, extend, support, and control the Scouting program within its exclusive territory. The WyoBraska Council of Scottsbluff merged into the Longs Peak Council in 1973.
As with Pikes Peak Council, there is officially no apostrophe in the name, due to a ruling about the mountain itself by the Board on Geographic Names.
The council's territory is divided into six geographic districts:
- Arapahoe District
- Centennial District
- Cheyenne District
- Great Plains District
- Pioneer Trails District
- Snowy Range District
- Thompson-Poudre District-Larimer and Jackson counties in Colorado, the primary towns are Berthoud, Estes Park, Fort Collins, Loveland, Walden, and Wellington. The district has two full-time professional Scouters and a large staff of volunteer Scouters.
- WyoBraska District
There are four camps, all owned by Longs Peak Council.
[edit] Ben Delatour Scout Ranch
Encompassing 3400 acres at 7200 to 8000 feet in elevation, Ben Delatour Scout Ranch [1] at Red Feather Lakes, Colorado is operated by the Longs Peak Council BSA and includes four Scout Camps:
- Camp Jack Nicol Cub Scout Camp
- Camp Charles Jeffrey Boy Scout Camp (dining hall)
- Camp Soaring Eagle Boy Scout Camp (patrol cooking and western theme)
- Elkhorn High Adventure Base.
Program areas on the Boy Scout Camps include Rock Climbing on some of the many peaks in the camp, C.O.P.E. (Challenging Outdoor Personal Experience), Shooting Sports, Scout Skills, Handicraft, and Nature Studies. Elkhorn High Adventure Base provides backpacking on BDSR and in nearby National Forest areas in several levels of challenge.
Ben Delatour Scout Ranch includes summer camp and year-round camping, with an altitude about 2100 m (6800 feet).
[edit] Chimney Park Scout Camp
Chimney Park Scout Camp in Woods Landing, Wyoming offers year-round camping, especially winter camps, at an altitude about 2700 m (9000 feet). The winter snow depth varies typically from 30 to 150 cm (1 to five feet), and the winter daytime high temperatures varies typically from -9 to +7 degrees C (+15 to +45 degrees F) The winter nighttime low temperatures vary typically from -26 to 0 degrees C (-15 to +32 degrees F). A lodge with stove and fireplace are available.
[edit] Camp Laramie Peak
Camp Laramie Peak, at the base of Black Mountain near Wheatland, Wyoming, offers summer camp and year-round camping.
[edit] Camp Patiya
Camp Patiya, near Boulder, Colorado, offers year-round camping.
[edit] Kola Lodge 464, Order of the Arrow
The Kola Lodge 464, chartered in 1951, serves 457 Arrowmen as of 2004. The totem of this Lodge is the Fire of Friendship centered in a gray arrowhead with a red feather in the background, and the name translates to "Friend" in the Lakota language. In 1973, Kola Lodge absorbed Wiyaka Luta 403 of the WyoBraska Council.
[edit] Girl Scouts-Mountain Prairie Council
The Girl Scouts-Mountain Prairie Council is based in Fort Collins, Colorado.
[edit] Pikes Peak Council
The Pikes Peak Council (60) of the Boy Scouts of America, headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Named after the most famous peak in the council territory, upon which 'America the Beautiful' was written, Pikes Peak Council provides Scouting to youth in east-central Colorado, including Park, Teller, El Paso, Elbert, Lincoln, Kit Carson and Cheyenne Counties. The council camp, Camp Alexander, at Lake George, in Park County, was donated in 1946 by J. Don Alexander of the Alexander Film Company. There are a series of Burma Shave-style signs on the main road into camp, each sign havin one of the points of the Scout Law.
As with Longs Peak Council, there is officially no apostrophe in the name, due to a ruling about the mountain itself by the Board on Geographic Names.
On board the Space Shuttle Challenger when it exploded in 1986 was an American flag that was sponsored by Troop 514 of Monument, Colorado. When the Challenger wreckage was retrieved from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, this flag was found, sealed in a plastic bag, intact and completely unscathed.
- Frontier District
- High Plains District
- Jamboree District
- Ute District
In July 2005, Pikes Peak Council moved from its four-decade home downtown to a more centrally located area northeast of there, to account for the demographic and geographic shift of Colorado Springs. The vacated building became the home of Sario, a Lions Club project.
[edit] Ha-Kin-Skay-A-Ki Lodge 387, Order of the Arrow
The Ha-Kin-Skay-A-Ki Lodge 387, chartered in 1948, serves 743 Arrowmen as of 2004. The lodge totem is a Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, and the name is said to translate to "Great Horned Goat of the Mountain" but does not specify the language or dialect. Until 1953, the Lodge was simply known as Pike's Peak Lodge.
[edit] International exchanges
Pikes Peak Council Scouts have an international relationship with Scouts in Kyrgyzstan.
[edit] Girl Scouts-Wagon Wheel Council
The Girl Scouts-Wagon Wheel Council is based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Founded in 1917, it is one of the oldest Girl Scout Councils west of the Mississippi River.
[edit] Oldest living GSUSA Girl Scout
The 100 year old oldest living Girl Scout is Marianne Elser Crowder, born in Colorado Springs in April 1906. She joined the Wagon Wheel Council Troop 4 in 1918 and got her Golden Eaglet, which was then the GSUSA highest award. She later operated her own dance studio in Colorado Springs and headed the dance department at Colorado College before moving to Menlo Park, California in 1939. The Wagon Wheel Council named Crowder the nation's oldest Girl Scout after it conducted a nationwide search and sifted through council archives. [2] [3]
[edit] Rocky Mountain Council
The Rocky Mountain Council (63) of the Boy Scouts of America is headquartered in Pueblo, Colorado, and provides program services to over 100 chartered partner organizations, delivering Scouting to more than 4,600 youth through 167 Scout units in 19 counties of Southern Colorado, including Pueblo, Fremont, Crowley, Kiowa, Prowers, Bent, Otero, Baca, Las Animas, Costilla, Conejos, Mineral, Rio Grande, Alamosa, Saguache, Huerfano, Custer, Lake and Chaffee Counties.
Rocky Mountain Council is home to La Junta's Koshare Indian Museum, regarded as one of the finest collections of Native American artifacts in the world. The Museum sponsors a Scout troop of dancers, the Koshare Indian Dancers, founded in the 1930s by J.F. "Buck" Burshears.
- Cuerno Verde District
- High Mountain District
- Pioneer Trails District
[edit] Summer Camps
[edit] Cub Camping Packard / Rocky Mountain High Adventure Base
Located near Poncha Springs.
[edit] San Isabel Scout Ranch
Located near San Isabel.
[edit] Tupwee Gudas Gov Youchiquot Soovep Lodge 536, Order of the Arrow
The Tupwee Gudas Gov Youchiquot Soovep Lodge 536, chartered in 1958, serves 117 Arrowmen as of 2004. The lodge totem is a Populus tremuloides or Rocky Mountain quaking aspen.
[edit] Girl Scouts, Columbine Council, Incorporated
The Girl Scouts, Columbine Council, Incorporated is based in Pueblo, Colorado.
[edit] Western Colorado Council
The Western Colorado Council (64) of the Boy Scouts of America was founded in 1942, and is headquartered in Grand Junction, Colorado. Western Colorado Council serves over 4,000 youth members and over 1,000 volunteer leaders through Scout units in fifteen counties of northwestern Colorado.
- Grand Mesa District serves Mesa County, and also hosts the council office
- Majestic Mountain District serves Hinsdale, Gunnison, Ouray, San Miguel, Montrose and Delta counties, a geographic area approximately the same size as the state of Connecticut
- Northwest Mountain District serves Moffat, Routt, Grand, and Rio Blanco counties
- Three Rivers District serves Garfield, Eagle, Summit, and Pitkin (but not Lake) counties
[edit] Mic-O-Say Lodge 541, Order of the Arrow
The Mic-O-Say Lodge 541, chartered in 1959, serves 168 Arrowmen as of 2004. The lodge totem is an eagle. The name was chosen by an early Scout Executive who wanted the Council to become a chapter not of the Order of the Arrow but of the preexisting Tribe of Mic-O-Say honor society common to Kansas and Missouri, where he hailed from.
[edit] Summer Camps
The Western Colorado Council has closed their former camp, and is working on getting a new camp.
[edit] Girl Scouts of Chipeta Council
The Girl Scouts of Chipeta Council is based in Grand Junction, Colorado.
[edit] Spanish Peaks Scout Ranch
The Spanish Peaks Scout Ranch (SPSR) is located near Walsenburg, Colorado and borders the Spanish Peaks Wilderness. It is a local council camp of the Santa Fe Trail Council, Boy Scouts of America based out of Garden City, Kansas. The camp gives program geared toward outdoor education such as wilderness backpacking, climbing, and outdoor skills.
[edit] International Scouting units in Colorado
In addition, there are large contingents of active Plast Ukrainian Scouts in Colorado.
[edit] External links and references
- Denver Area Council
- Longs Peak Council
- Pikes Peak Council
- Rocky Mountain Council
- Western Colorado Council
- Girl Scouts of Chipeta Council
- Girl Scouts, Columbine Council, Incorporated
- Girl Scouts-Mile Hi Council
- Girl Scouts-Mountain Prairie Council
- Girl Scouts-Wagon Wheel Council
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