High Five

CubWorld has its own set of traditions, separate and unique from the Scouts BSA camps. Many of these traditions are rooted in a central philosophy: give Cubs a good experience and they’ll keep coming back. That means its important for the Cubs to have fun and feel welcome.

Campfires are a great example of this philosophy at work. As Scouts and their parents enter the campfire area, the staff line the path. But instead of standing solemnly with signs up to ensure quiet, staff high five every Scout and parents that comes down the trail. This sets a completely different tone as all enter the campfire area with the fire already lit and ready to go.

Here is the start of a CubWorld campfire in 2019. Camp Program Director Garrett Ladd welcomes Scouts and parents as they follow the winding path down to the campfire area. Camp Director Max Briscoe waits at the other end where the fire is already burning.

Testing the Water

The move to Rock Island was fairly abrupt. The Council announced the move on April 11, 1949. Camp was set to open June 26. Docks and the Crib had to be build, a kitchen erected, and so much more. Imagine building a camp from scratch in approximately 9 weeks.

Camp would run for nine weeks that summer with each week holding approximately 125 to 150 Scouts. Scouts camped “bivouac” style that first summer–individual two and four man tents around the property, but campsites by troop would be introduced the following summer. 1949 was the last time Ward Akers would serve as Camp Director.

It was a lot of work. Here are some of the adult leaders taking a break to test out the first purified water from the Caney Fork River. Some were professionals and some were volunteers. From left to right were Floyd “Q-ball” Pearce, Field Executive Talmadge Miller, Everett Hertenstein, Field Executive Floyd Laney, Field Executive Craig Ayers, Council Executive Ward Akers, and local Scoutmaster Wayman Hillis.

“Indian Tells Story of Custer”

You probably haven’t heard this story before! In July of 1926, the Sioux chief Red Fox came to Camp Boxwell at Linton. The Oglala Lakota spoke on Custer’s Battle at Little Big Horn and the lives of Native Americans. Speakers were regular nightly events at the Linton Boxwell.

Interestingly, Red Fox was in the Nashville area for about two weeks, promoting a film titled “The Vanishing American.” The Tennessean promoted the film with a drawing contest of a Native American, the winner getting a silver cup. Born in 1870 on the Pine Ridge reservation, Red Fox was an actor in several silent films of the time, getting his start in show business with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show in 1893. Controversy surrounded the veracity of much of Red Fox’s accounts of the old West, but he never seemed much bothered the brouhaha.

Red Fox’s talk at Linton was one of literally dozens he made while in the Nashville area. One article states he made as many as three lectures as day. He continued to be active for years, publishing his memoirs in 1972, just a few years before he died at the age of 105 in 1976.

“Indian Tells Story of Custer,” The Nashville Tennessean, July 20, 1926, pg. 5