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Scouting in Colorado

Scouting in Colorado has a long history, from the 1910s to the present day, serving thousands of youth in programs that suit the rugged, mountainous environment in which they live.

Early history (1910-1950)

Scouting got a brisk start in Colorado. The Denver Council was founded in 1915, and in 1926 changed its name to the Denver Area Council, which it remains to this day.

The Colorado Springs Council was founded in 1916, and in 1922 changed its name to the El Paso and Teller Counties Council. That council in 1925 changed its name to Pikes Peak Council, which it remains to this day. Pikes Peak Council is home to the oldest continually-chartered troop in the state of Colorado, Troop 2, originally chartered to Colorado Springs' First Presbyterian Church in October, 1917.

The Greeley Council was founded in 1916, and in 1924 changed its name to the Weld and Morgan Counties Council. That council in 1928 changed its name to Longs Peak Council, which it remains to this day. The Fort Collins Council and Longmont Council, each founded in 1917, merged in 1919 into what is now the Longs Peak Council. The Boulder Council, also created in 1917, was merged in to the Council in 1920. The Southeastern Wyoming Council of Cheyenne merged into Longs Peak Council in 1928.

The Trinidad-Las Animas County Council, founded in 1917, changed its name to the Las Animas County Council in 1924. This and the Arkansas Valley Council, founded in 1924, merged in 1927 to become the Spanish Peaks Council. The Pueblo Council was founded in 1920, and in 1928 changed its name to the Rocky Mountain Council, which it remains to this day. The Spanish Peaks Council merged into Rocky Mountain Council in 1932.

The Western Colorado Council was founded in 1942, and is one of the very few councils that have not undergone a namechange or merger in their entire history.

During World War II, Japanese Americans interned at the Granada War Relocation Center set up a separate Amache District for Scouts at the camp, after the camp's unofficial name Camp Amache.

Recent history (1950-1990)

In 1952, a Capital Fund Campaign was held to raise money for a new camp, Tomahawk Ranch. In 1955, $600 was raised to help restore Juliette Low's birthplace. In 1959, the Girl Scouts of Metro Denver council name changed to Girl Scouts-Mile Hi Council, which remained the name until 2007. In 1967, troops for girls with special needs were started at Fletcher Miller School and at Fort Logan.

International Girl Scout gatherings named Senior Roundups were held every three years from 1956 until 1965. The National Girl Scouts of the USA Roundup was held from July 3 to July 12, 1959 adjacent to the site of the then-new United States Air Force Academy north of Colorado Springs, attended by 10,000 girls.

Pikes Peak Council served as host to the 1960 National Scout Jamboree, held north of Colorado Springs adjacent to the United States Air Force Academy, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Boy Scouts of America.

Scouting in Colorado today

There are six Boy Scouts of America local councils and a single Girl Scout council in Colorado, merged from an original five.

The first National Wider Opportunity for Senior Girl Scouts, "Recall the Riches restore the Ruins," was held in Central City in 1973. In 1979, "Sky Hi Ski," a National Wider Opportunity, was held at YMCA Snow Mountain Ranch near Granby and a Senior Girl Scout troop from Mile Hi Council participates in the opening ceremonies at the Winter Olympics at Lake Placid.

As of October 1, 2007, all Girl Scouts from the state are joined as Girl Scouts of Colorado Council.

Denver Area Council

The Denver Area Council (61) of the Boy Scouts of America is headquartered in Denver, Colorado, with a satellite office in Greenwood Village, and supports Scouting units and youth in an area of central Colorado from Arapahoe and Adams Counties east to the Continental Divide.

For traditional units, the council is split into districts related by geography. These districts are:

Arapahoe - Serving Sheridan, Littleton, Englewood, Roxborough, Greenwood Village, Cherry Hills, Centennial and Highlands Ranch
Centennial - Serving Aurora, Green Valley Ranch, Bennett, Strasburg, Byers, Deer Trail, Center, Foxfield and unincorporated Arapahoe County
Frontier - Serving Denver County
Gateway - Serving North Jefferson, Gilpin, Clear Creek and Broomfield Counties
Pioneer Trails - Serving Elbert, Elizabeth, Kiowa, Franktown, Castle Rock, Sedalia, Louviers, Larkspur and Parker
Timberline - Serving Jefferson, Park and parts of Clear Creek Counties
Valley - Serving Adams County

The Pioneer Trails District is a new district, formed in 2004. It broke off from the Arapahoe District, which was deemed by the council to be too large.

The council, also, has non-geographic districts to support non-traditional programs operated by the council. These districts are:

Venturing - Serving all young men and women ages 14-20
Summit - In-school traditional Scouting in Denver County and our Soccer in Scouting program
Urban Scouting - Serving youth in Denver
Special Needs - Serving youth with disabilities throughout the Metropolitan Area
Exploring - Serving ages 14-21 in career exploration in the Denver Metropolitan Area

The Denver Area Council operates camps in two locations in Colorado. The primary camp, Peaceful Valley Scout Ranch, is located in Elbert, Colorado. The second, smaller camp, is Camp Tahosa, located near Nederland, Colorado.

Tahosa High Adventure Base

Camp Tahosa is a camp near Ward, Colorado, serving the Denver Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America. It was the primary camp for the Denver area until the later 1970s, when it was shut down because of damage caused by environmental factors. It was replaced by Peaceful Valley Scout Ranch. The camp was recently re-opened as a high adventure base. The High Adventure Treks from Camp Tahosa lead Scouts into the adjacent forest.

Tahosa High Adventure Base Camping Programs

Tahosa is home to six separate camping programs, Alpine Adventure, Tahosa Trek, OKPIK, The Challenge (COPE), Big Horn National Youth Leadership Training and EaglePoint.

Alpine Adventure

Alpine Adventure is a six night mountaineering adventure in the high country of Colorado, combining the training facilities of Tahosa High Adventure Base with the lakes and vistas of the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area. The Scout will be members of a 12-person team, learning and applying skills to conquer the strenuous challenges of the program in a dynamic mountain environment.

Tahosa Trek

Started in 1995 to provide a basic knowledge of backpacking/low impact camping, the program now offers more advanced training and longer, customized treks for the units of the Boy Scouts of America.

Okpik

A weekend extreme winter camping experience design to train Scouts in winter survival.

The Challenge (COPE)

The Challenge is part of the National COPE program that encourages youth and adults to expand mental creativity, increase physical abilities, promote leadership skills and instill personal confidence.

Big Horn National Youth Leadership Training

Big Horn National Youth Leadership Training (NYLT) is a weeklong youth oriented leadership training experience held for five weeks during the summer.

EaglePoint

EaglePoint is the newest addition to Tahosa. Founded in 2000 at Peaceful Valley Scout Ranch, EaglePoint is a troop run camp with access to the Tahosa High Adventure Base facilities. With a small staff, troops can build their own schedule and do whatever they would like for their week at camp. This program had a predecessor that started as early as 1991 called Eagle Quest.

Peaceful Valley Scout Ranch

Peaceful Valley Scout Ranch is the main camping location of the Denver Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America. The camp, built in the 1960s by the U.S. Navy, was a replacement to the original camp, Camp Tahosa. The camp is located just outside of Elbert, Colorado.

Peaceful Valley Camping Programs

Peaceful Valley Scout Ranch is home to four separate camps, Camp Cris Dobbins, Camp Cortland Dietler, Magness Adventure Camp, and EaglePoint.

Facilities include the Travis Shooting Sports Facility, which contains an Olympic shotgun shooting range, the Gates Aquatic Center, a horse corral, BB Gun range, two lakes, and the four above mentioned camps.

Camp Cris Dobbins

Cris Dobbins is the flagship camp of Peaceful Valley. The camp is home to The Travis Shooting Facility, which includes an Olympic shotgun range, the million dollar Gates Aquatic Center, a dining hall, and over around twenty campsites. The camp, with a capacity of around 400 campers, offers dozens of merit badges and programs for scouts of all ages.

Camp Dietler

Camp Dietler, founded in 1988 by William Eck, is a patrol style summer camp experience. While merit badges are offered, the main foucus is on the patrol method. This is carried out through patrol cooking, events determined by the patrol leader's council, and several high adventure outposts. The camp is named for Cortland Dietler, who donated the money to build the camp commissary.

Magness Adventure Camp

Magness Adventure Camp is the Denver Area Council's Cub Scouts camp. The camp has three shelters, each with a campsite housing eighty tents. The program includes lake activities, a BB Gun range, an archery range, recently added a slingshot paint ball range and a tower that overlooks Elbert County. The camp is also available for rental by outside groups, and is often frequented by groups such as Denver's High School ROTC and girls groups from the Latter Day Saints Church.

EaglePoint

EaglePoint is the newest addition to Peaceful Valley. Founded in 2000, EaglePoint is a troop run camp with access to the Peaceful Valley facilities. With a small staff, troops can build their own schedule and do whatever they would like for their week at camp.

Tahosa Lodge 383, Order of the Arrow

The Tahosa Lodge 383, chartered in 1948, serves 1218 Arrowmen as of 2004. The lodge totem is a coney (rock hyrax), and the name translates to "Dwellers on the Mountain Tops" in the Kiowa language.

Girl Scouts of Colorado

The Girl Scouts of Colorado has its corporate headquarters in Denver, Colorado. This statewide council was formed in 2007 by a realignment of the five councils that had been serving the state, and the incorporation of nine counties that were previously served by councils in border states. The five previous Colorado councils were Mile Hi (Denver), Wagon Wheel (Colorado Springs), Columbine (Pueblo), Mountain Prairie (Fort Collins), Chipeta (Grand Junction); and the eight Colorado counties previously served by councils in other states were Archuleta, Dolores, Jackson, La Plata, Las Animas, Montezuma, Prowers and San Juan. Girl Scouts of Colorado has service center locations in Colorado Springs, Denver, Durango, Fort Collins, Grand Junction and Pueblo. There are also staff members who work in other areas of the state such as Bailey, Breckenridge, Estes Park, Crowley, Greeley, Johnstown, Longmont, Merino, Monte Vista, Parachute, Sterling, Trinidad, Red Feather Lakes, Sanford, Steamboat Springs and Woodland Park. Additionally, Girl Scouts of Colorado has divided the state into eight regions. The council serves 40,500 girl members and 11,000 adult volunteers. The council maintains four resident camp properties: Magic Sky Ranch, near Red Feather Lakes, Larimer County, Meadow Mountain Ranch, near Estes Park, Boulder County, Sky High Ranch, Woodland Park, Teller County, and Tomahawk Ranch, near Bailey, Park County.

Great Southwest Council

The Great Southwest Council serves the Durango and Mesa Verde areas of Colorado.

Longs Peak Council

The Longs Peak Council (62) of the Boy Scouts of America is headquartered in Greeley, Colorado. Named after the tallest peak in the council territory, Longs Peak Council serves Scouting youth in northeastern Colorado north of Denver, southeastern Wyoming and the panhandle of western Nebraska, and is chartered by BSA to organize, extend, support, and control the Scouting program within its exclusive territory. The WyoBraska Council of Scottsbluff merged into the Longs Peak Council in 1973.

As with Pikes Peak Council, there is officially no apostrophe in the name, due to a ruling about the mountain itself by the Board on Geographic Names.

The council's territory is divided into six geographic districts:

Arapahoe District
Centennial District
Cheyenne District
Great Plains District
Pioneer Trails District
Snowy Range District
Thompson-Poudre District-Larimer and Jackson counties in Colorado, the primary towns are Berthoud, Estes Park, Fort Collins, Loveland, Walden, and Wellington. The district has two full-time professional Scouters and a large staff of volunteer Scouters.
WyoBraska District

There are four camps, all owned by Longs Peak Council.

Ben Delatour Scout Ranch

Encompassing at 7200 to in elevation, Ben Delatour Scout Ranch at Red Feather Lakes, Colorado is operated by the Longs Peak Council BSA and includes four Scout Camps:

Camp Jack Nicol Cub Scout Camp
Camp Charles Jeffrey Boy Scout Camp (dining hall)
Soaring Eagle Boy Scout Camp at Camp Ruth Coffin (patrol cooking and western theme)
Elkhorn High Adventure Base.

Program areas on the Boy Scout Camps include Rock Climbing on some of the many peaks in the camp, C.O.P.E. (Challenging Outdoor Personal Experience), Shooting Sports, Scout Skills, Handicraft, and Nature Studies. Elkhorn High Adventure Base provides backpacking on BDSR and in nearby National Forest areas in several levels of challenge.

Ben Delatour Scout Ranch includes summer camp and year-round camping, with an altitude about 2100 m (6800 ft).

Chimney Park Scout Camp

Chimney Park Scout Camp in Woods Landing, Wyoming offers year-round camping, especially winter camps, at an altitude about 2700 m (9000 ft). The winter snow depth varies typically from 30 to 150 cm (1 to five feet), and the winter daytime high temperatures varies typically from -9 to +7 degrees C (+15 to +45 degrees F) The winter nighttime low temperatures vary typically from -26 to 0 degrees C (-15 to +32 degrees F). A lodge with stove and fireplace are available.

Camp Laramie Peak

Camp Laramie Peak, at the base of Black Mountain near Wheatland, Wyoming, offers summer camp and year-round camping.

Camp Patiya

Camp Patiya, near Boulder, Colorado, offers year-round camping.

Kola Lodge 464, Order of the Arrow

The Kola Lodge 464, chartered in 1951, serves 457 Arrowmen as of 2004. The totem of this Lodge is the Fire of Friendship centered in a gray arrowhead with a red feather in the background, and the name translates to "Friend" in the Lakota language. In 1973, Kola Lodge absorbed Wiyaka Luta 403 of the WyoBraska Council.

Pikes Peak Council

The Pikes Peak Council (60) of the Boy Scouts of America, headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Named after the most famous peak in the council territory, upon which 'America the Beautiful' was written, Pikes Peak Council provides Scouting to youth in east-central Colorado, including Park, Teller, El Paso, Elbert, Lincoln, Kit Carson and Cheyenne Counties. The council camp, Camp Alexander, at Lake George, in Park County, was donated in 1946 by J. Don Alexander of the Alexander Film Company. There are a series of Burma Shave-style signs on the main road into camp, each sign havin one of the points of the Scout Law.

As with Longs Peak Council, there is officially no apostrophe in the name, due to a ruling about the mountain itself by the Board on Geographic Names.

On board the Space Shuttle Challenger when it exploded in 1986 was an American flag that was sponsored by Troop 514 of Monument, Colorado. When the Challenger wreckage was retrieved from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, this flag was found, sealed in a plastic bag, intact and completely unscathed.

Frontier District
High Plains District
Jamboree District
Ute District

In July 2005, Pikes Peak Council moved from its four-decade home downtown to a more centrally located area northeast of there, to account for the demographic and geographic shift of Colorado Springs. The vacated building became the home of Sario, a Lions Club project.

Ha-Kin-Skay-A-Ki Lodge 387, Order of the Arrow

The Ha-Kin-Skay-A-Ki Lodge 387, chartered in 1948, serves 743 Arrowmen as of 2004. The lodge totem is a Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, and the name is said to translate to "Great Horned Goat of the Mountain" but does not specify the language or dialect. Until 1953, the Lodge was simply known as Pike's Peak Lodge.

International exchanges

Pikes Peak Council Scouts have an international relationship with Scouts in Kyrgyzstan.

Oldest living GSUSA Girl Scout

The 100 year old oldest living Girl Scout is Marianne Elser Crowder, born in Colorado Springs in April 1906. She joined the Wagon Wheel Council Troop 4 in 1918 and got her Golden Eaglet, which was then the GSUSA highest award. She later operated her own dance studio in Colorado Springs and headed the dance department at Colorado College before moving to Menlo Park, California in 1939. The Wagon Wheel Council named Crowder the nation's oldest Girl Scout after it conducted a nationwide search and sifted through council archives.

Rocky Mountain Council

The Rocky Mountain Council (63) of the Boy Scouts of America is headquartered in Pueblo, Colorado, and provides program services to over 100 chartered partner organizations, delivering Scouting to more than 4,600 youth through 167 Scout units in 19 counties of Southern Colorado, including Pueblo, Fremont, Crowley, Kiowa, Prowers, Bent, Otero, Baca, Las Animas, Costilla, Conejos, Mineral, Rio Grande, Alamosa, Saguache, Huerfano, Custer, Lake and Chaffee Counties.

Rocky Mountain Council is home to La Junta's Koshare Indian Museum, regarded as one of the finest collections of Native American artifacts in the world. The Museum sponsors a Scout troop of dancers, the Koshare Indian Dancers, members of Boy Scout Troop 232 and Venturing Crew 2230, founded in 1933 by J. F. Burshears who have become recognized world-wide, for their interpretive Indian dancing.

Cuerno Verde District
High Mountain District
Pioneer Trails District

Summer Camps

Cub Camping Packard / Rocky Mountain High Adventure Base

Located near Poncha Springs.

Official Site

San Isabel Scout Ranch

Located near San Isabel.

Official Site

Tupwee Gudas Gov Youchiquot Soovep Lodge 536, Order of the Arrow

The Tupwee Gudas Gov Youchiquot Soovep Lodge 536, chartered in 1958, serves 117 Arrowmen as of 2004. The lodge totem is a Populus tremuloides or Rocky Mountain quaking aspen.

Western Colorado Council

The Western Colorado Council (64) of the Boy Scouts of America was founded in 1942, and is headquartered in Grand Junction, Colorado. Western Colorado Council serves over 4,000 youth members and over 1,000 volunteer leaders through Scout units in fifteen counties of northwestern Colorado.

Grand Mesa District serves Mesa County, and also hosts the council office
Majestic Mountain District serves Hinsdale, Gunnison, Ouray, San Miguel, Montrose and Delta counties, a geographic area approximately the same size as the state of Connecticut
Northwest Mountain District serves Moffat, Routt, Grand, and Rio Blanco counties
Three Rivers District serves Garfield, Eagle, Summit, and Pitkin (but not Lake) counties

Mic-O-Say Lodge 541, Order of the Arrow

The Mic-O-Say Lodge 541, chartered in 1959, serves 168 Arrowmen as of 2004. The lodge totem is an eagle. The name was chosen by an early Scout Executive who wanted the Council to become a chapter not of the Order of the Arrow but of the preexisting Tribe of Mic-O-Say honor society common to Kansas and Missouri, where he hailed from.

Summer Camps

The Western Colorado Council has closed their former camp, and is working on getting a new camp.

Spanish Peaks Scout Ranch

The Spanish Peaks Scout Ranch (SPSR) is located near Walsenburg, Colorado and borders the Spanish Peaks Wilderness. It is a local council camp of the Santa Fe Trail Council, Boy Scouts of America based out of Garden City, Kansas. The camp gives program geared toward outdoor education such as wilderness backpacking, climbing, and outdoor skills.