Scouting in Arizona facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Scouting in Arizona
Camp Lawton
Popcorn stand run by Girl Scouts at the New Year's Fair in Poston, Arizona

Scouting in Arizona has a long history, from the 1910s to the present day, serving thousands of youth in programs that suit the environment in which they live.

Early history

The founding of the Boy Scouts in Arizona

Major Burnham with BSA Troop, Carlsbad Caverns, 1941

Boy Scouting was founded by Robert Baden-Powell in England and co-founded by the American Scout Major Frederick Russell Burnham. 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. Burnham served as the Honorary President of the Arizona Boy Scouts throughout the 1940s until his death in 1947.

The first two Boy Scout troops in Arizona Territory were organized in Prescott, in September 1910 and in Tombstone at almost the same time. In Prescott, E.P. Cole of Whipple Barracks was the first scoutmaster. Arizona Territorial Historian Sharlot Hall was an honorary member of the Tombstone troop. Scouting came to Phoenix in the fall 1910 with Clarence R. Craig as the scoutmaster. Other scout troops were formed; in Bisbee in early 1911. and in St. Joseph and Snowflake about the same time.

Harold Steele, principal of the then new Tucson High School, organized the first Scout troop in Tucson on April 20, 1911.

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. 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. 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. This was the second council in Arizona. George A. Johnson was the first Council President. Edwin M. LeBaron was the first Field Commissioner. Their first summer camp was held on Sycamore Creek near Payson, Arizona.

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. The 1922 summer camp was at Pineair (now call Reavis Ranch located in the Superstition Wilderness Area about 45 miles (72 km) east of Mesa). 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

Boy Scouts Dedicate Cabeza Prieta NWR, 1939

In 1936, Boy Scouts in Arizona mounted a statewide 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.

Desert Bighorn Sheep

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.

These efforts led to the establishment 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.

Girl Scouting in Arizona

Girl Scouting in Arizona
Map of Girl Scout Councils in California

There are two Girl Scout councils in Arizona.

In Arizona, Girl Scouts was started in Prescott in 1916 by Maxine Dunning though the first troop in Arizona was not formally recognized until 1918 in Ajo. The Barbara Anderson Girl Scout Museum in Phoenix focuses on Girl Scout history and in particular Arizona Girl Scout history.

Girl Scouts–Arizona Cactus-Pine Council

Girl Scouts–Arizona Cactus-Pine Council
Headquarters	Phoenix, Arizona
Country	United States
Chief Executive Officer	Tamara Woodbury
Website girlscoutsaz.org

Girl Scouts-Arizona Cactus-Pine Council serves over 25,000 girls in northern Arizona as well as in the Utah and New Mexico sections of the Navajo Nation and in a small part of California.

Camps

• Camp Maripai is 80 acres (32 ha) at 6,000 feet (1,800 m) near Prescott, Arizona. It was established in 1942.
• Camp Sombrero is 20 acres (8.1 ha) at the base of South Mountain near Phoenix, Arizona
• Camp Stephens is 5 acres (2.0 ha) at 6,100 feet (1,900 m) 10 miles (16 km) east of Kingman, Arizona
• Shadow Rim Ranch is 40 acres (16 ha) at 5,600 feet (1,700 m) in Tonto National Forest near Payson, Arizona
• Willow Springs Program Center is 190 acres (77 ha) at 6,000 feet (1,800 m) in Prescott National Forest

Girl Scouts of Southern Arizona

Girl Scouts of Southern Arizona council serves more than 14,000 girls in Pima, Cochise, Greenlee, Yuma, and Santa Cruz counties and southern parts of Graham, Maricopa, and Pinal counties. It was previously known as Sahuaro Girl Scout Council.

Camps

• Whispering Pines Program Center is 16 acres (6.5 ha) on Mount Lemmon in Coronado National Forest
• The Hacienda Program Center in Tucson
• Camp Tucker is a leave no trace camp ground near Rimrock.

Scouting museums in Arizona

Images for kids

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  The "Indian Chief's" profile (above windmill) on Cat Mountain, overlooking Double V Scout Ranch