Hershel Tolbert

After the resignation of Ward Akers in 1975, Middle Tennessee Council needed a new executive at the helm. The “new” man was Elias Lake “Hershel” Tolbert and he already had a history with Middle Tennessee.

Born in 1925 in North Carolina, his moved to Erwin, TN and from here he enlisted in the Navy in 1942. After the war, he worked for a time with the L&N Railroad, then the Maxwell House Hotel. He started as a professional in Scouting with Middle Tennessee Council under Akers in 1952. The 1950s were Scouting’s boom years and Tolbert rode the wave well. He was promoted to a Field Executive that same year. In 1958, just six years into his career, he was promoted to Council Executive at Pine Burr Council in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. This appointment made Tolbert one of the first members of the so-called “Middle Tennessee Mafia,” MTC professionals who grew up under Akers and went on to become Council Executives in their own right.

Tolbert spent almost 20 years in Hattiesburg before accepting the appointment to succeed Akers, becoming Middle Tennessee’s third executive. There were no capital campaigns under Tolbert. He guided the Council through the rough seas of the post-Akers years and the rebound on the 1980s. The Council rose from 24,000 youth when he started to 40,000 at his retirement in June 1991. Over the course of his career, he oversaw Scouting for more than half a million boys and saw 5,000 Scouts achieve Eagle. He was honored with the Silver Beaver in 1999. Tolbert passed on Veterans Day, November 11, 2013 at age of 88.

Seen here is a Christmas card of Tolbert and his family. To his right is his wife Varina. Sitting behind are song Philip and daughter Lake.

Season’s Greetings from the Tolbert Family, 1980s. Collection of Lori Locke.

Clearly, This Is A…

As mentioned last week, there are things on the reservation that pre-date Boxwell. Most of these are easy to identify. There are house foundations and cemetaries. A well house, a well pipe, and at least one outhouse.

There’s also this thing. To be honest, I’m not really sure how to describe it. There are concrete walls–solid slab, not blocks–on either side of a set of concrete stairs. There are five or six stairs leading underground to a small enclosure with a floor. There are large bolts on the exterior walls and a pipe coming out of the underground enclosure. There is what appears to be a large concrete foundation covering at least a ten foot square area. There are rusting sheets of roof metal in the area as well. If there was a standing structure here, the roof is all that is left.

This was easily part of the same operation that included the outhouse from last week and the nearby well. But what was it? A grist mill? A lumber mill? A still of some kind? A shelter? We just don’t know for sure, but it is one of the great mysteries that is Boxwell.

An abandoned concrete… something in the woods on the way to the Fehrmann Center. Photo by Grady Eades, 2025.

A Two-Seater

If you know anything about the history of the reservation, you know that the property was farmland before it became Boxwell. Some of the land belonged to the Bandy family, some to the Tyrees, and more to others. The Council bought its first acreage in 1952, before the Lake was even impounded.

This means there are still structures on the property that pre-date the Reservation. This outhouse is one of them. Found near where the property touches Woods Ferry Road, the outhouse is in remarkably good shape for building that is easily over 85 years old. There is a well pipe nearby, but no house foundation. There is something else, but we’re saving that for next week.

And, in case you were curious, this is a two-seater. Both seats are still intact. The left seat is mostly filled with dirt, but the right is still ready to go!

A pre-Boxwell outhouse in the forest near Woods Ferry Road. Photo by Grady Eades, 2025.

Portable Platforms

The fall and winter months are great opportunities to wander around the reservation. The leaves are down and you can find all kinds of things that might normally be hidden.

Take, for instance, this sheet of green metal found in the woods near the Parnell Athletic field. Deteriorating and covered with leaves, it seems like an odd object to find in the woods.

This is one half of an old portable platform. Portable platforms were temporary and mobile platforms that could easily be brought into a site if an extra tent were needed for whatever reason. By the 1980s, port-a-plats were heavier and more elaborate affairs. There were two halves of a wooden deck, two outriggers to set the plats on, and two long 2×4 arms to tie it all together.

This sheet of metal is an earlier version. It is one half of a platform, but there were no outriggers. Put the two halves together, throw a tent on top, and stake it down. Very mobile, very temporary, very portable. And in this case, damaged, likely by staff, and “hidden” in the woods decades ago.

An early portable platform in the woods behind Camp Parnell. Photo by Grady Eades, 2025.