Broad Kaw Valley

Announcements, Announcements, Announcements…

broadkawvalley — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 03:51:18 +0000

Okay, hopefully way in the back of your mind you’ve been wondering why you haven’t seen any posts lately from Broad Kaw Valley…the truth is, I’ve been working on another website project: Kansas City Scouting Museum. The new site is a virtual collection of Kansas City Scouting memorabilia that I’ve been working on with frequent BKV contributor Matt Perryn. Matt will share some of the editing responsibilities for the site and will provide a boost from the Missouri side of the state line.

The centerpiece of the new site is the galleries section which will ultimately house many images of Scouting memorabilia from the Kansas City region and beyond. Some of the galleries so far include Mic-O-Say Tribal Feast patches, Tamgeognit Lodge event patches, Kansas City Area Council activities, and Kansas military base shoulder strips — with more to come. A few of the areas we’re trying to build/expand are the Troop neckerchiefs (both Eagle Scout and regular issue), Philmont trek items, and Brownsea/JLT items. Several of the other galleries have images as well, feel free to poke around to find out what we have uploaded so far. As always, if you have images to share, please contact us.

The site will also be online home of the Kansas City Trade-O-Ree held each spring and will include a blog and a resources section to download books and other information.

Finally, the Kansas City Scouting Museum will have a facebook presence to keep you updated on additions to our image collections. Make sure to like the new page!

Finally! Thanks to facebook, a mystery is solved…it’s Camp Winnetka.

broadkawvalley — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 20:16:54 +0000

Here at Broad Kaw Valley, maintain a What Is It page in hopes of identifying mysterious (at least to me) Boy Scout items. One such item, shown below, has been in my collection for close to 15 years and I finally figured it out last week. The felt “W” patch shown in the image was found on a shirt with a khaki and red “Macon” community strip at appears to date from the 1930s.

In terms of figuring it out, here’s how it went down:

I posted a link to the What Is It site on patch-L and received response that it might be from Lake of the Ozarks Council which was based in Jefferson City, Missouri and that the patch was featured in the June 2003 ISCA Journal with a “Boonville” khaki and red strip. After a few searches, I came up empty…so I turned to facebook. I became a fan of Great Rivers Council (based in Columbia, MO) and posted the image on the wall. Shortly thereafter, I got the response I was looking for: Camp Winnetka near Moberly, MO.

A few more searches and I came up with a good case: Moberly is 25 miles south of Macon and 40 miles northeast of Boonville. The patch has been found on shirts with Macon and Boonville khaki and red strips. Also, I found an article from 2008 about a Macon, MO scout troop celebrating its 75th anniversary. It references Scouts meeting at Camp Winnetka near Moberly in the 1930s before moving into the basement of the Macon United Methodist Church.

My conclusion? Camp Winnetka sounds like a pretty good match to me.

If you have any additional information on Camp Winnetka or need help identifying a patch, please contact me.

Kansas City Jamboree Item – 1953 National Jamboree Photo

broadkawvalley — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 17:53:50 +0000

I received this picture earlier this week of a Group of Boy Scouts from Olathe attending the 1953 National Jamboree held at the Irvine Ranch in California. The picture was used in an Olathe, Kansas newspaper, possibly the Olathe Mirror. The caption notes that all of the Scouts are from Olathe with the exception of a few noted below.

Scouts Attending the 1953 National Jamboree

Group portrait of Scouts from Olathe, Gardner, and Lenexa, Kansas before their trip to the 1953 National Jamboree. Top row, L to R: 1) Jim Silvers, 2) Bob Starrett, 3) Bob McCreary, 4) Hugh Bruner, Jr.; second row from top: 1) Jerry Bush, 2) Harry Roth, 3) Ron Bonjour (Lenexa, KS); third row from top: 1) Howard Hougland, 2) Roger Kaster, 3) Jim Kean; fourth row from top: 1) Thoman Reese (Gardner, KS), 2) Don Catlin; front row: 1) Tom Rendleman, 2) Bruce Burns, 3) Stanton Shopmaker, 4) Norb Garrett.

An interesting note: Two newspaper clippings I received noted that Norb Garrett (shown in the front row at the far right) sustained a head injury while participating in a hike at the Jamboree. The article states that he suffered a slight concussion after hitting his head on a stone. Following his injury, his parents traveled to California to be with their son.

Thanks to Gene T. for sharing this information.

Kansas City Jamboree Item – 1950 National Jamboree Troop 86 Photo

broadkawvalley — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 17:47:25 +0000

A few weeks ago I posted about some images on www.jocohistory.org that I found of Scouts from the Kansas School from the Deaf. I did a little more searching of the site and turned up this image:

Troop 86, Olathe, Kansas - 1950 National Jamboree Attendees - Photo Credit: Olathe Public Library

The description of the photo states, “Group portrait of Boy Scout troop 86 before its trip to Scout Jamboree 1950. Back row, L to R: Howard Hougland, Harry Roth, Roger Kaster, Ron Bonjour, Jim Silvers, Sealy Lamb; front row, L to R: 1) Stan Roth, 2) Ivan Wicke, 3) ???? 4) Claude Kean, and 5) Park McGee.”

UPDATE: If you recognize the person pictured 3rd from the left in the first row, please contact me at broadkawvalley at gmail dot com.

I communicated with the son of one of the boys pictured and he confirmed that his dad attended the Jamboree as a scout.

My list of Jamboree items continues to grow – if you have anything to share, please feel free to contact me. broadkawvalley at gmail dot com.

Excited for Camp Naish – 1989 & 1990

broadkawvalley — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 18:20:54 +0000

I found these four photographs over the weekend. They document my preparations for Camp Naish in 1989 & 1990. My dad, Jack Lewis, attended Camp with me both years and we were transported by the conversion van shown in the background.

Yes, I was very excited to leave for Camp

Below is our Troop photo before departure – I count 30 boys and 7 adults. I recognize a few of the faces and still talk with a few of the people pictured. I am pictured in the 2nd row, 5th from the left.

Troop 86 - Camp Naish, 2nd Session, 1989

Year Two (1990):

I am showing a little more restraint here.

Back for more! 26 boys, 6 adults. I am in the back row 3rd from left

Troop 86 - Camp Naish, 1990, 2nd Session

Note: big thanks to my mom for sorting through all of our family photos and pulling out the Scouting-related prints.

Kansas City Jamboree Item – 1960 Kansas City Area Council – Troop 71 Photo

broadkawvalley — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 17:54:29 +0000

I received a nice batch of images earlier this week from a local collector in response to my call for Kansas City area Jamboree items. Here’s one of my favorites from the bunch (click for a larger view):

1960 National Jamboree - Kansas City Area Council, Troop 71

A few things to note are the sign with “Kansas City Area Council” visible in background at right, “Troop 71” totem pole visible in background at left (near tear) and the sign in foreground which states, “Troop 71 – Section 6”. I spotted a few Region 8 neckerchief slides and Matt P. (who sent me the photo) noted that the text on one of the neckerchiefs looks like the text shown on the neckerchief below – which I’ve assumed to be a Kansas City Area Council JAmboree neckerchief. Also, for you tribesmen, Scouts and Scouters with Mic-O-Say claws are visible.

1960 National Jamboree - Kansas City Area Council Neckerchief

Thanks to Matt P. for sharing these great images.

Feel free to contact me if you have any more Kansas City-related Jamboree items. broadkawvalley at gmail dot com.

The Camp Naish Story – available for download

broadkawvalley — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 13:23:36 +0000

A while back I came in to possession of a what appears to be copy of a copy of a copy of The Camp Naish Story which was published around 1965. The cover of the book is shown below.

The book details the early years of what is now Theodore Naish Scout Reservation and includes pictures and maps from around Camp. It is a fun read for those with a connection to that place high above the Broad Kaw Valley. If you haven’t seen it, I scanned my copy and uploaded the PDF. It is available on the Broad Kaw Valley download page. I ran optical character recognition on the file. You should be able to search the text, but I am not sure how reliable the results will be. Hopefully you’ll enjoy reading through it as much as I have.

If you like this post – “like” Broad Kaw Valley on facebook by clicking the link to the right.

Sailing the High Seas of Kansas – Part II

broadkawvalley — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 18:10:14 +0000

I’ve posted previously about Sea Scouting in Kansas (see links below), primarily focusing on the S.S.S. Kansan from Topeka, Kansas. Recently, a local collector sent me an image of a Sea Explorers shirt he picked up with a Kansas connection. The shirt, shown below, has a red and white ”Independence” community strip and a “Kans.” state strip [these are a little difficult to see in the picture] on one shoulder, but the more exciting piece is the S.S.S. Ka Hawk ship patch on the other shoulder.

Sea Explorer Jumper with Ka Hawk Ship Patch

I promptly did a search on “Ka Hawk” and found the S.S.S. Kansan wasn’t the only ship from Kansas to have success in flagship competitions. Apparently, the S.S.S. Ka Hawk was a part of the National Flagship Fleet in 1945 and 1946. As a result, the crew would have received patches similar to those shown below. Additionally, the ship earned the National Standard award in 1947 for which the crew would have received the “National Standard Senior Scout Unit” award also shown below. Keep your eyes peeled for these Sea Scouting items with a Kansas connection.

1945 & 1946 National Flagship Fleet Awards

1947 National Standard Senior Scout Unit

Note: A special thank you to Bruce Johnson for permission to use the images above.

For more information about the flagship competitions see the history section at www.seascout.org.

Here comes the Kansas City tie-in – In looking through the results, I found one other interesting item: in 1940 the S.S.S. Kansas Citian from Kansas City, Missouri was part of the National Flagship fleet. Now I am on a quest to find out more information (and maybe a ship patch?) for the S.S.S. Kansas Citian…

For more reading:

Sailing the high seas of Kansas
Kansas Sea Scouting
Also, check out this impressive Sea Scout uniform jacket that was on eBay a while back – Unbelievable Rare Sea Scout Uniform

Thanks to Jody T. for sharing the Sea Scout shirt images.

Tamegonit Lodge Event Patch Checklist Update

broadkawvalley — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 17:38:06 +0000

I’ve uploaded a new version of the Tamegonit Lodge event patch checklist. It can be found in the Broad Kaw Valley downloads section. The file is a PDF that should allow you to make a mark in the check boxes - the boxes will accept text so you can keep track of your dupes as well.

The primary update is the addition of two varieties for the 2004 event patches – as shown below, each patch came in a “curved” and “flat” top. I made some other minor update/clarifications as well. As always, if you have any additions/corrections, please let me know.

The list includes everything through the end of 2010 (from what I understand no event patches have been made for this year) – except for the belt coup beads that were given out in the late 1980s – see picture below. Examples of the markings on the plastic beads include (which appear to be burned into the bead by hand): “FF” (Fall Fellowship), “SC” (Spring Conclave), “86″ (1986), “TN” (Camp Naish), “OA” (Order of the Arrow). The round wooden bead has “SC” written in pen. I didn’t get pictures from all sides, so I can’t catalog these handcrafted treasures just yet.

Thanks to Gene T. for the image of the associated backpatch and four “flat” tops.

Scanning the patches and making a picture checklist is on my list of things to do…sounds like a good winter project.

Kansas City Jamboree Item – 1985 x 2

broadkawvalley — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 17:26:35 +0000

I received a few more Kansas City jamboree item images the other day. First, we’ve got a hat pin from Heart of America Council. The design is modeled after the JSP issued that year (also shown below).

1985 JSP Hat Pin

1985 Heart of America Council JSP

The item I was really excited to see is this Jamboree troop photograph from Troop 218:

: Heart of America Council 1985 National Jamboree Troop 218

Click on the image above for a larger version. Recognize anyone?

Thanks to Gene T. for the materials above. Based on our communication, there was another Jamboree troop from Heart of America Council that year – either 217 or 219. If you have any more information about it, please pass it along in the comment section below or email me at broadkawvalley at gmail dot com.