Ahh the power of the internet. I was recently adding in several hundred camp patches to our shopping cart. Camp patches are a great area of collecting in our hobby. They are part of the foundation of Scouting; the fun ‘means’ to the ‘ends’ of citizenship development. Part of the fun, and frustration, with collecting camp patches is the identification of particularly early pieces.

Amongst the items we have was the following patch:

Well as coincidence would have it, this patch just appeared on eBay. The seller provided the following information that sounds authoratative and accurate:

1951 Camp Chawanakee felt Chief patch never used. This felt was used at other camps in Califormia and other in the USA as well. Hard to find and was used from 1951-1953. Camp Chawanakee is a camp at Shaver Lake in Fresno California.

Here’s the Hunter patch:

Here’s the Warrior patch:

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We were looking up some information and came across Kevin Rudesill’s web-site on great Washington state Scout camp patches. Kevin’s a long time customer and fellow enthusiast with a real passion for items from the Pacific northwest, especially Washington state. His site, Best of the Best Washington Camp Patches and Histories, is really worth a look.

A few years back I picked up the following Washington state patches, at the time I believe were unknown:

The patches, although great, were not as interesting the notes that came from the seller:

Camp Cleland was a Scout camp for the Tumwater Council, headquartered in Olympia, Washington from 1927 to 1941. My father was a professional Scout Exectuive, and his first assignment was to this council in 1934. The badges were his.

Camp Cleland was a hike-in camp, accissible only via a very steep two mile trail. It was on land that had been loged and then acquired by the Scouts, but trees grow fast there and it soon became a pleasant spot that included Lake Lena. This area is now a popular hiking area in Olympic National Park and Olympic National Forest. I can’t determine the exact site of the camp (it is complicated by the existence of a Lake Lena and an Upper Lake Lena) but I do know that there is a marker at the site commemorating an outstanding Scout who died in World War II. Reunions of people who had gone to Camp Cleland were held for years, and one of those groups placed the marker.

She also enclosed copies of some black and white photo’s from the camp. I’ll see if I can’t get them scanned in too.

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As part of the ISCA sponsored trade-o-ree in Dallas this past month there were a series of educational sessions. Silver Buffalo recipient and long time collector Dr. Hal Yocum presented one on re-enactment of Baden-Powell, the founder of the Boy Scouts. We thought you might enjoy what Hal has learned over the years and recorded a part of his presentation.

Hal points out that many youth in the program today don’t know who BP was or would recognize him. For over twenty years now he has played BP at various Scout functions and Woodbadge training courses. Click on the video player below to start.

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