1st Boy Scouts Camp at Seeley Lake – 1917
First Boy Scouts at Seeley Lake – 1917
Boy Scouts Will Take Outing On Seeley Lake
E. E. Hubert To Have Charge of the First Camp in Mountains
To Last Seven Days
Youths to Get Instruction in Woodcraft and Fire Protection
Plans for the first Boy Scout camp to be held at Seely lake (sic) in the Blackfoot valley during the latter part of August were announced yesterday by E. E. Hubert, who has been appointed to take charge of the arrangements for the outing. It is expected that more than 50 Boy Scouts of the city will take advantage of the opportunity to attend the camp.
Tents and camp kits have been donated to the scouts by the United States forest service and a camp site on the lake owned by the forest service will be turned over to the scouts for the camp. The only expense to the boys will be the food that they eat on the trip.
Strict Rules to Prevail.
According to Mr. Hubert the camp will be organized on a systematic basis and the boys while at camp will be under strict rules. The time will be scheduled and they will have certain hours for the various kinds of work they plan.
Instructions will be given the scouts in scout work, drilling, forest fire protection and woodcraft. Besides this the boys will be given certain hours for swimming and those who cannot swim will be instructed by the scoutmasters in charge of the camp. Flag raising and lowering each day will be a feature of the day’s program.
Master of Commissary.
K. D. Swan, of the forest service, has consented to go along as master of the commissary department. Mr. Swan is experienced in this line of work and the scouts can be assured of good meals.
“The boys will be well supervised,” said Mr. Hubert, yesterday, “and the parents of the boys will have no need to worry about their sons while on the trip. We will have enough men along to be with the scouts at all times.”
The above article appeared in The Daily Missoulian on July 18. 1917.
https://www.newspapers.com/image/349080056
First Scouting in Missoula – 1916
An excerpt from an article found in the Daily Missoulian on Feb. 13, 1930, stated the following:
T. E. Layfield, chairman of the boys’ work committee of the club, had charge of the program. In an announcement talk he gave a short history of scouting in Missoula. The first troop was organized in 1916 by a Mr. Bussy of the Northern Pacific who left town before the troop functioned. The following year E. E. Hubert, now at the University of Idaho, K. D. Swan, F. H. Cooney, Mr. Layfield and a Mr. Howard organized troops No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3. The site for the Scouts permanent summer camp on Seeley lake was selected in 1924 and that year four cabins were built.