BOY SCOUTS

Commemorative envelope issued October 9, 2010 celebrating 100 years of scouting in the Northeast Council.

Commemorative envelope

BOY SCOUTS. Dubuque's first two troops of Scouts were organized soon after the arrival of a representative from the national office in August 1910. Due to lack of cooperation and interest, these troops gradually disbanded. (1)

Interest was revived in 1916 when local businessmen organized by Henry WILBERDING and a Scout executive, Walter Gunn was hired. Fired with enthusiasm, Gunn organized troop after troop so that by 1919 Dubuque had 525 registered Scouts. (2)

In 1930 financial security came to scouting when it became part of the Community Chest collection. Local scouts also benefited by the donation of a rugged and heavily wooded campsite south of Durango from the Wallis family. (3)

A lasting memorial to his [John Burton's] name was created in 1929, when Camp John Burton was dedicated as a Scout Camp. The land for this purpose, some 26 acres, was given by James Harold Wallis and John Rider Wallis, both grandsons of John Burton, whose daughter [Mary Burton] had married a Wallis [John William Wallis]. (4)

The ruins of Burton's furnace in Durango. Photo courtesy: Andrea Wallis Aven

The smelting furnace was located just south of the present [in 1973] red bridge at Durango- immediately behind the stone structure was a very steep hill. As a young boy my great uncle, Jos. Herod, showed me the remains of a stone flume or chimney built on the hill side and connected with the chimney of the smelter - an ingenious way of increasing the draft to carry the smoke and fumes without building a high vertical chimney. (5)

In 1921 Lynn Osborne became the first Dubuque Council scout to earn the Eagle Scout designation, the highest rank a Scout can earn. (6) Janet VANCE became the first woman in Iowa to be inducted into the Brotherhood of the Arrow.

In 1960 the Junior Chamber of Commerce and Scoutmaster Don Hesseling and two assistants organized Troop 67 exclusively for the handicapped. It was the first troop of its kind in the Northeast Iowa Council. (7)

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Source:

1. "How Scouts Grew in Dubuque," Telegraph Herald, January 31, 1960, p. 5

2. Ibid.

3. Ibid.

4. Wallis, John Rider. Platt Smith 1813-1882 A Brief Biography; Notes From the Bonson Diary 1840-1854; Rambles Thru Linwood, History in a Graveyard, 1973

5. Ibid.

6. Ibid.

7. "Form Special Scout Troop for Physically Handicapped," Telegraph Herald, March 27, 1960, p. 28

Special appreciation to Andrea Wallis Aven.