Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Philmont Scout Ranch?

Pic from 2012 with my youngest son on top of Mt Baldy. A very good trip.


782 G2 040 by JHC,

I don't know about other troops but our Scoutmaster had been a paratrooper with the 101st Airborne Div, and had jumped at Normandy, Holland, and fought at the Battle of the Bulge. He was married to a pretty girl and had a little daughter. I do not think he was a gay phag.

For you men who were Eagle Scouts, my Eagle Scout idee card was signed by President Harry S. Truman. I still have it.

FWIW.

L.W.

Kudos Leanwolf!
Good story and a keepsake.

Many firsts on the trip, skinny dippin' at the YMCA pool. first taco in Dodge City.
First hash Browns, first Rodio.

Lol.

July of '65. Rode a train out there and back and had a great adventure all around.

My Explorer Scout advisor in the early 1960s was also a Battle of the Bulge survivor- - - -recovered from disfiguring burns from an exploding can of gasoline they were trying to use to heat their foxhole. Tough as woodpecker lips and mean as a rattlesnake! The phags came a lot later.

3 trips. First in 1978 as a youth. Went as an adult leader in 1986 and again in 1991.

Dale

My son and I go with his troop this July, 9 day itinerary and should know which route we get soon. He finished off his Eagle rank in December at age 13.

Sent my son there with his troop in 2009. He was 14. He actually didn't care for it, which I thought was a little embarrassing. But he was highly respected by the other boys in the troop, for his leadership. He had other opportunities but declined them. Said he'd been there and done that.

Disappointing since I never had the opportunity to go. I was in the Nation's Capitol area Council and all the slots allocated to the Council were gone in about 10 minutes. That was 1968. 69 and 70. Instead in 1969 our Explorer Post went to Glacier and Waterton N.P. in Montana and Alberta. We hiked 292 miles during 3 weeks on the trail. Best part of scouting I ever did.

My son Eagled in 2012, and still serves as an Advisor to Mercy Flights, a southern Oregon Explorer post for Air Ambulance Service, the oldest in the country. He has gone to the National Jamboree in West Virginia several times.. three I think with Mercy Flights, where they do med support. He is an EMT and Paramedic.

He also got to go to the 100th Annual Jamboree in 2010. He went as a Camp Councilor on the Rifle Range. Youngest guy there and the Director of the Rifle Range called and complained learning the he was just 14. Told me if my son screwed up ONE time, he was going to be sent home. Son lasted the entire week, and afterwards, the Range Manager called me up to apologize, for his call before the Jamboree and threatening to send him home if he screwed up one time.

Told me 'boy was I wrong, even for his age".... your son was the most responsible Range Counselor I had on the entire range... never had to tell him twice on anything, he was never screwing off or clowning around... all business, when he was suppose to. only one to follow instructions to the letter. and was the youngest guy on the range. Evidently dad taught his son well and how to pay attention to instructions and to take his responsibilities seriously. Wasn't dad's doing, my son just paid attention and didn't screw around when there was work to do... and that is all on him.... he did that naturally.

Scouting certainly made my son the person he is today also.... much more certainly than dad had responded to responsibility and I was no slouch.. but not up to my son's standards. Proud dad if you can't tell.

I did not know that.

Is there any updated information regarding that mortgage of Philmont?? I hope the BSA has either paid it off or are keeping the mortgage payments current. If they were to default, I have no doubt that JP Morgan Chase would take it over and develop it. Probably create 40 acre "ranchettes" for Chinese communist industrialists and Saudi oil billionaires.

Any info???

Thanks.

Bill.

Last I read, several years back, there was little if any chance, despite the mortgage, that the Boy Scouts would lose Philmont. I assume that hasn't changed but have seen nothing recently. That's 140,000 acres with hundreds of structures and administrative and ranching facilities, homes, etc. with a value six or eight years ago of at least $500,000,000. Ranches in the area that adjoin Philmont are the UU Bar and the Vermejo, both of which are larger.

My first rodeo

My brother and I went to Camp Bert Adams near Atlanta, four years in a row, a week at a time. I got four merit badges. I did the Mile Swim across the lake at age 12. A junior Navy SEAL!

Boy Scout Camp was a wonderful experience, but I never made it to Philmont. I knew some guys who went there. Philmont was like a legend. It was like Valhalla.

I did not go, but some Scouts went to Valley Forge.

We rented two Volkswagen's for a day, hairpin curves, WOW!

Went in 2001, the summer before my freshman year of high school. A wonderful experience. The scouts have changed since then, though.

I also went to Camp Bert Adams in the early 70’s when I was a boy. Loved it. I did that same swim. Slept on cots in tents, cooked every meal ourselves at our campsite. Good times.

I went several times as a scout starting in 1995. First trek our troop ever did. I was the trek leader and I still have that map framed in my bedroom in my parents home. I’m not the scoutmaster of the troop I eagled from. My son is life rank now. We plan to head to Philmont for the first time in many years in either ‘25 or ‘26. The boys are looking forward to it.

A little off topic, but how is the organization faring now days? It seems to have vaporized from this region (PNW) where it was mostly churches (primarily LDS) sponsoring troops.

Even though I was an outsider, I helped for about 15 yrs mostly with skills and extended white water trips, and thought it was an especially valuable program for boys that were missing father figures. I started hearing misgivings, when the ladies began making inroads.