I’ve been researching Illinois related Scouting since I was 15 years old and I just turned 37 the other day so I’ve been at it for quite awhile. I’d not heard of a camp or trail for any Illinois council that I was previously unaware of for a long long time. Well just the past couple weeks I’ve seen something from one of each.

First is a camp brochure I spotted on eBay from Camp Dunlap out of the Danville Council, Danville, IL. And to add insult to injury, I didn’t even know they were called by that name so late. I thought it was Piankeshaw Council before 1935. Camp was located in Indiana but obviously was the camp of this Council in Illinois if you read the brochure:

Second is a brochure from a Troop operated trail in Abraham Lincoln Council that I’ve never heard of before. It was called the Lincoln-Douglas Heritage Trail, located near Jacksonville, IL. And what’s even crazier is that they talk about a first day patch, a regular patch, and even a medal so there’s cool memorabilia from this thing:

Click on the picture of the trail brochure and you’ll get a larger version, it posted small for some reason.

Just goes to show you, nobody knows everything, even me. That makes me sad, I thought I might……..

Destry the Non-Guru

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First Posting from Destry the Chief of Sales:

OA issues that are previously unknown are pretty rare to find these days. There’s been so much digging and research done that there just isn’t much out there we’ve not seen before. But oddly enough, we’ve come up with two pieces lately that are apparently previously uncataloged items.

First is a segment from Wincheck Lodge 534 that goes around an early Camp Yawgoog round. We got it with a group of stuff from the estate of a gentleman who’d been a professional Scouter in that area during the late 40’s and early 50’s.

Same exact style and construction as the other segments, plus they were all in an envelope together. And to make it more interesting, going by how early the camp patch is, I’d say it’s probably the first issue of the Lodge.

Second is a piece from Passaconaway Lodge 220. Very similar to the R1 but with some major differences as well.

The top one is the patch we have and the bottom is the known variety of the 220 R1. Besides the green border, there are differences in the bear itself. On the one we have the bear clearly has a mouth and an eye, plus lots more fur detail than on the known R1.

The backs are very different. Ours has a heavy red cloth backing and a white backstitch on the embroidery. The known R1 has a white gauze backing and an all black backstitch. I’d say by the embroidery type of the known R1 it was made by St. Louis / Geer Embroidery as it’s the exact same type as a lot of their patches pre-1952. Considering it’s got more detail and is of a higher quality construction, I’d say it’s possibly an R2 issue.

*Thanks to Dr. Bob Sherman for emailing me the front and back of the known 220 R1*

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We literally handle hundreds of thousands of patches each year. Still, we come across ones we’ve never before seen. I don’t know what it is or where its from but I can’t think of another Scout patch with a mermaid on it. Sounds like they must have had some fun program-type Scouters in this council.

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I’ve got a category for “what’s its.” I think I need to create one for “where’s its.” See the following pictures. Clearly this is a BSA camp. It would appear to be from Region 7 as the merit badge sash has a 1942 Region 7 First Aid meet patch on it (although it could be from a neighboring state and the Scout went to this event in Region 7.) The problem is, no one has yet figured out where it is from. Can you help?

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