From the Archives, January 27, 2019

A Scoutmaster’s Supper, 1970

The mundane is only mundane until it isn’t, then it becomes interesting. We’ve discussed Scoutmaster Suppers before and this one is not that different from that mid-1960s supper. However, this 1970 supper gives us a chance to look at some, well, mundane things and how they have changed.

First, you’ll note that this supper is not at Akers Cabin or Ittabeena (today’s Fehrmann Training Center). The cabin was absolutely completed by 1970, but it was also essentially Ward Akers’ residence out of Nashville. Thus, it was not used for Scout functions like the Scoutmaster’s supper. Instead, by 1970, these suppers had moved from Crab down the hill from Stahlman dining hall, next to the cook’s cabins.

Second, you’ll notice the cook’s cabins. The cabins have this name because at this point, the cooks actually stayed there. Generally the only female staff on the reservation, the cabins were reserved for the cook staff and off-limits to everyone else. The Schleichers, the main cooks and heads of the kitchen for 30 years, took one cabin and the other cooks used the other cabin.

Third, the meal itself. We are used to the meal being steaks cooked over gas grills. This hasn’t always been the case. While you can’t see it in this photo, just to the side of Ed Human (far left), are two normal sized, Weber-style charcoal grills. Also, while we can’t tell from this photo, dinner wasn’t always steak; chicken was often the main course.

So, not particularly exciting, but a good opportunity to look at how a tradition that is still very much with us is not quite the same thing that it was…

Supper 1970

A Scoutmasters’ Supper, believed to be the conclusion to the 1970 National Camp Inspection.

From the Archives, January 20, 2019

Another segregated camp?

We have discussed the previous segregated camps, the one at Greenwood Park and the one on Couchville Pike. Both of these existed during the Narrows of the Harpeth Boxwell’s year. But of course, Rock Island Boxwell was a segregated camp as well.

Camp Burton at Couchville Pike appears to have remained open until about 1953. The 1954 article here says that segregated camp was trying out a new location, now in the Leiper’s Fork area. This is consistent with stories we have been told that the “black camp” was down the road from the first camp, Boxwell at Linton. The camp briefly explained here would fit with that description.

Still, the article also demonstrates a bit of the mystery that sometimes accompanies historical research. Later materials clearly indicate the Council had a Camp Burton, but this article never mentions Camp Burton. It does suggest this camp might be named Camp Cove Lake. The wording isn’t clear. Is this Burton, just moved to a new location?

Further, _Boys Will Be Men_ is quite clear in the “Creighton Shocks Scouting” chapter: Wilbur F. Creighton, Council President, closed the J. C. Napier Division (segregated) offices (pg. 130). As an FYI, Creighton was Council President from 1951 to 1953. This 1954 article equally clearly states that the J. C. Napier Division was alive and well and promoting a new Scout camp. Someone is not giving an accurate story.

And these are the problems with writing history. Sometimes the answers aren’t always clear or readily available…

“Napier Scout Division Set Camp Dates,” _The Nashville Banner_, June 15, 1954, pg. 5

_Nashville Banner_ article on the segregated Boy Scout camp

_Nashville Banner_ article on the segregated Boy Scout camp

From the Archives, January 13, 2019

New Years’ Resolution

Camp stories are at the heart of the Boxwell experience. And, as you know, we’ve collected a few over the years! So, even though we know it requires a bit of reading (gasp!), we have a New Year’s Resolution: share more camp stories. At least once a month, we hope to provide you with some camp anecdotes. But like weight loss promises made on the first of January, we’ll see how long this lasts!

The stories this week are from Bill Murphy. Bill was a Parnell staff member from 1968 to 1972. He worked in the Parnell AY and then became part of the Commissioner system when it was implemented in 1971. The stories we share this week are a result of last year’s “Anecdotes Project.”

Some of Bill’s Favorite camp stories follow…

“In 1968 there was a staff tradition that anyone who overslept had pitchers of ice water thrown on him in his bunk after breakfast was over. I made the mistake of over sleeping and held the record of 38 pitchers of ice water being thrown on me. That record stood at long as I was on staff, I don’t know how many years it was the record. The worst part of over sleeping was not the ice water but reporting to Coach Jackson for your punishment, a week of breakfast duty in the mess hall in addition to all your other duties at camp. Needless to say I only over slept that one time.

“Each summer a few staff members stayed around to help close up camp for the winter. We pulled the floatable docks around to the Parnell cove and up on shore. There were tents left up that had to come down and be stored at the Compound. I stayed a couple of weeks after all the campers had left to help in 1971. Bobby Parker and I stayed in the two bedrooms upstairs at the OA Lodge. We also bailed hay and worked tobacco. Working tobacco is the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. (If you want a sure way to stop smoking, go work tobacco one summer and get the ‘green’ tobacco juice in your nose, mouth, and all over every exposed part of your body.) Ranger Bobby Smith is the only man I’ve ever known that worked tobacco shirtless as that green sap was so sticky. We not only worked the Boy Scout tobacco base but we helped Farmer Bush at the end of one of the work days. The evening we were to cut Farmer Bush’s tobacco, Mrs. Bush cooked us a HUGE lunch. There was more food than 20 people could have eaten and there was only about 8 of us at the table.

“Farmer Bush was a character!! Farmer Bush stories were at a minimum R rated and most were X rated. One of the running jokes during mess hall announcements was “Public Speaking merit badge was going to taught at the Compound by Farmer Bush.” He was always armed and was constantly dealing in pocket knives. Farmer never confirmed he made moonshine but here is the story. A moonshine still blew up about a 100 yards behind Farmer Bush’s home but it was unclear who owned the land where the still sat. The sheriff came and talked to Farmer but no one was ever charged.

“Pumpkin Green was a skilled/experienced man. He had worked so many years at farming there was little, if anything, he didn’t know about farming. He also had acquired skills in handling the farm equipment. Backing a hay trailer is a fine art, as it doesn’t work like a boat trailer. It actually works opposite to how a backing a boat or 2 wheel trailer. I tried backing one of the hay trailers with a tractor many many times over the 5 summers I worked at Boxwell and never came close to being good at it. Pumpkin could not only back one hay trailer and put it anywhere it needed to go but he could do tandem trailers without batting an eye. He could also fell a tree with uncanny accuracy using a chainsaw. When we were clearing Camp Beanie Elam I saw his mastery at work. I always enjoyed working around Pumpkin as I felt there was so much to learn from him.

“The following happened every year I was at Boxwell and probably could continue today. When thunder storms come from the west you get to see an amazing lightning show (better than any laser show) by sitting out at the front of the Chapel. It could take hours for the storms to roll across the lake from Nashville. We would move a bench from inside the Chapel and place it against the westward facing wall. There we could sit with our backs against the rock wall and watch a heavenly light show. When the storm got close enough we would return the bench and try to beat the storm back to our tents.”

From the Archives, January 6, 2019

Camp Traditions: Stahlman’s AY

It is clear that every camp has it’s own traditions. Whether that camp be the first Camp Boxwell in the 1920s or Gaylord CubWorld today, every camp (and its staff) has things it does that are unique to that camp, regardless of how similar overall program may be. We will look at other examples of this, but for this week, let’s go to Camp Stahlman.

For several decades now, Camp Stahlman’s Activity Yard has had a Pioneering tradition: expansive pioneering projects. Pioneering projects are hardly foreign to the AY, but while Craig and Parnell’s Activity Yards tended to be singular, individual “big” projects for Pioneering Merit Badge, Stahlman took the projects to the next level. Every week, the project grew. The centerpiece (a quadpod) was often the same, but the branches coming off of that centerpiece were different every week and every year. While there may have been a plan, the projects appeared completely organic and no one has ever revealed the secret!

This week’s photo is part of this organic, expansive project. Taken in 1994, you can see the quadpod in the background on the bottom photo. From there though, the project has expanded around the program area to include several different projects, all of which Scouts could not only use, but incorporated several different lashings. In short, the projects were great examples of practical application of skills. These expansive projects were Stahlman traditions; none of the other camps have anything quite the same.

Pioneering

Part of the sprawling Pioneering Merit Badge project in the Stahlman Activity Yard, 1994

Website Update, January 1, 2019

Happy New Year!

As the centennials of both Boxwell and the Council approach, we have been hard at work researching both.  While we have a more comprehensive work in progress for 2021, we felt like it was time to share some of work.  Thus, for the start of 2019, we give you a significant content update for VirtualBoxwell.org.  Here’s the breakdown:

1) A new banner image is this photo of Woodbadge pond in the snow of 2010.  The original photo is below. It was taken by Head Ranger Steve Belew.

2) The Media page has been deleted.

3) The Staff Page section has been reworked.  New photos have been added to the Reservation page. CubWorld now has its own page. A new section for the Other Boxwells has been added.  In other words, staff pages for the Linton Staff, the Narrows of the Harpeth Staff, and the Rock Island staff have been added.

4) New material has been added and updated to the Primer section. All of the camp namesakes now have a history in People & Positions.  All three Boxwells have been added to the People and Things section.

5) Edits have been made to:
The About Us Page
The Credit Page
The Museum Page
The Special Exhibit: Camp Murrey Page

We hope you enjoy the new material.  Honestly, if you weren’t familiar with Edwin Craig or the other Boxwell namesakes, you should check out the Primer.  The new information there is worth a read!

“From the Archives” will return on Sunday.

The VirtualBoxwell Team

 

Woodbadge Pond

Woodbadge Pond–today McKinney Pond–in the snow, 2010.