A Mounted Eagle Scout Troop a deliberately forgotten piece of scouting history

As you travel past the rotting structures of the once proud Allegheny County  South Park  Fair which was permanently cancelled  in late 1960's you will come across an interesting building now called South Park Cottage but originally it was called Eagle Scout Lodge .

Why I wondered was it called Eagle Scout Lodge ?   I remember as an Alter Boy at St Basil's Church  in Carrick 29th ward of City of Pittsburgh Pa.  that we once held our alter boys appreciation  picnic  there for many years  till some of my fellow alter boys damaged one of the vacant buildings next to the lodge in early 70's and our group was no longer permitted there and that it was called Eagle Scout Lodge. Many in scouting I asked  thought it was to honor those who earned the Eagle Scout Award  one old timer told me it was to honor a group of eagle scouts who served as Calvary Scouts in WWI but the dates did not correlate as scouting had just started about that time . So I decided to find out why after never getting a satisfactory answer from any one in executive end of  scouting including the worthless  Allegheny Trails Council now known as Laurel Highlands Council .

entrance to Eagle scout Lodge

Well after doing some research it seems the building was used to train the first Mounted Eagle Scout Troop in Allegheny county in 1933
 when South Park first opened.

Mounted Eagle Scout Troop?    Like Calvary Troop ?
no not that but close you see in that time period when scouting first started  to be an Eagle Scout you had to show proficiency in Horsemanship because even up into the 30's horse's where still being used  for everything from delivering milk to farm use so it was a needed skill to be able to properly handle a horse. Especially during the depression when only the rich could afford cars in many areas .  You where  even required at one time  to earn the Horsemanship Merit Badge to get to Eagle Scout Rank and award .
 Horseman Ship skills also where important if you where considering becoming a military officer which many eagle scouts did back then because the US military still had mounted Calvary units  into the 40's .
 So this is what this building was all about was the training and advancement of Eagle Scouts to
become excellent in there horsemanship skill and become officer material in the process. kind of like an early ROTC program.  many do not know it but General George S. Patton started out as an expert horseman and Calvary Officer in his early career.
While doing my research on the eagle scout lodge  I came across a couple articles on this which I have included below.
So mystery solved despite the facts scouting has hidden this excellent chapter of its history. Why it has been forgotten who knows why would a group be ashamed of this?

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=1jcxAAAAIBAJ&sjid=NGkDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1708,3181920&dq=mounted+eagle+scout+troop+allegheny+county&hl=en

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=EjIbAAAAIBAJ&sjid=eUsEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2011,2128688&dq=mounted+eagle+scout+troop+allegheny+county&hl=en

What did the Kiasutha Lodge do with Chief Silver Tips ( John M. Phillips) Indian outfit where is it?

One of the honor  organizations with in  Boy Scouting is The Order of The Arrow also known as OA  it has 3 ranks  Ordeal, Brotherhood and Vigil  I made it to brotherhood in the Kiasutha Lodge which no longer exists and was renamed and merged over the years.

http://www.oa-bsa.org/misc/basics/

http://www.griesmyer.com/Pages/kiasutha_57_s1a.aspx

 

By time I was fully able to participate my work schedule often had me working weekends which kept me from attending  the weekend events ,and a certain family resented my belonging in the first place due to the fact on my mothers side of family they where deeply involved  with native Americans in the late 1700's . My 7th great uncle John Heckewelder  was a missionary who worked with Native American Tribes  right here in Western Pa. and wrote a book about them  and there customs and brought many to Christianity . He is one of our nations forgotten historical figures.
 Instead of welcoming me and my contributions I was often shunned by some because I had real Indian connections and they did not. The link below is a short bio on my uncle

http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=184

  

Too bad for them and there ignorance and pettiness  no in fact Shame On Them for acting the way they did..

But I also suspect they are behind the disappearance of John M. Phillips   Ceremonial Chiefs Outfit.

He also worked with Indians  in the late 1800's and  early 1900's  and was known by them as Chief Silver Tip  the honorary name they gave him after rescuing a bear with silver tip  of fur on its head in one of his many western adventures. A boyscout district where I grew up  was named silver tip in his honor since he helped to start the scouting program but the name has since been changed.

http://wiki.carrick-overbrook.org/John_M._Phillips#This_article_is_from_the_Carnegie_Museum_Carnegie_Magazine_Sept._10th._1990_Issue

The last time I saw his outfit was in 1977 while at Camp Guyasuta in Sharpsburg  helping out during a camporee and members of the Kiasuta Lodge  mostly who where with silver Tip district

 found it in storage  above the little store  called the outpost where scouts could buy refreshments and get swimming pool passes ,for the pool. It was in a large silver colored tin box about 4 ft long and 2 foot wide. It was supposed to be restored and displayed and never was.  It has never been seen  from again no one knows what happened to it and people who where  around with me when it was taken down have all scattered  or left scouting and everyone denies or can not remember  the meeting ever took place or has no idea what I am talking about  because it has been 35 years since it was last seen . I personally believe it was sold off to a private collector , for a huge sum.

Thats what council does sell things then take the money and waste it.  They operate like the big money no name no conscious corporations do around here .  Whats that again in the Scout Oath about Honest, Trustworthy  and Truthful or is that only when you where a scout growing up and now it no longer counts .
the OA and Scout Council  executive could not bother to show up at his marker dedication why should I be surprised about this.

I helped get Mr. Phillips his State Marker I would really like to find his outfit have it restored and properly displayed as would his relatives. 

More proof of lies and deciet by a scout council about Camp Semiconon and other matters

Abandoned Camp Semiconon bath house

Yes in the picture above sadly are the remains of the bath house at the now gone Camp Semiconon  which was run by Allegheny Trails council now known as Laurel Highlands council after several councils merged which was located in Butler county off  of Pa 68 -7 miles south  of  Lake Aurthur   how do I know its seven miles in the summer of 1977 I was on the camp staff as a Voyager and Ranger's Assistant .
 My God one of the most horrifying times of my life that summer I never ever served on a camp staff again an a friend of mine the same thing he will never again serve on a camp staff  as far as the camp Council execs told us it was sold to a hunting group to be turned into a hunting lodge  another lie as usual out of Flag Plaza  it was sold to a private family and most of the structures have just rotted away from non use as this picture shows . came across it on a Face Book group on old and abandoned structures in Western Pa.
That summer in 1977  myself and John  Z. ran the Shoe & Canoe program   a mini version of the Boot & Paddle program that was run out  of the now closed camp Tionesta  I did the Boot and Paddle 150 mile canoe program twice from Tionesta to Pittsburgh Via Allegheny River. with Shoe & Canoe   we would take scouts and there leaders on a seven mile hike  along back country roads to Lake Arthur also known as Moraine State Park  then get into canoes and go 2 miles across the lake to an old abandoned town of just stone and brick foundations camp overnight and do the reverse in the morning. One of my troop members Steve was also on staff as a rangers assistant . Utility persons they called us when not doing Shoe & canoe we where doing all kinds of repairs to the camp.  Both John and I had electrical backgrounds  which came in handy and we worked with Joe H. one of the greatest guys you ever wanted to work for. He passed away few years after  I was on staff and his wife got screwed by US Steel on his pension  where he retired from and moved up the road to a trailer park unfortunately joes oldest son would be in and out of trouble  with the law, do not know what became of any of them.They where such  a nice family.
 

That summer while on staff I ended up taking apart and tearing  Camp Tionesta  what a beautiful camp this was  located on  Allegheny National Park land . Flag Plaza said the government would not renew the lease once again a big fat lie. they also said the beautiful knotty wood cabins would be dismantled and moved and reused also more lies and deceit they sold them to a contractor for the wood to be used on various projects they where not preserved.The rest where just burned down.

They also lied about the missing 3 phase water pump for camp Anawanda in Greene County
we went to camp there one week end for a camporee for silver tip district and found no water running
we where told the pumps 3 phase motor had been stolen during the winter. My self and a friend Russ beaver offered to go looking around the local farms for it only so many places it could have been used around Greene county The execs said no hey did not want neighbors upset and with good reason the pump was not stolen I would be told many years latter by camp ranger sunny at camp guyasuta the pump was taken out and used at the new camp heritage.

There was also the time myself and other contractors gave  camp guyasuta all types of materials to be used at the camps and council turned around and auctioned it all off  instead of using it for the camps betterment .

Yes council lies they lie all the time.  and one the the first rules of scouting is a scout is truthful  except it seems when your a council executive.

They also as typical lied about food costs at the summer camps as well. They insisted on using the same institutional food supplier for all the camps and for them to make a delivery to Tionesta it was 175 miles one way in the days before the interstates where finished and it was100 miles to Semiconon  and 75 Annawana .  I asked the camp financial director why not just get Super Dupers super market  supplier down the  road in tionesta  and Butler  city to deliver. No they cost more and can not do it. Again total and complete lies . I noticed in trash one day when I emptied it some of the price lists on our weekend break we hitch hiked as a group to down town tionesta all of one block long and went over the bridge  to the super duper and talked to the manager not only could he beat the prices by as much as 65% he also had wider variety and would have loved to have done it all he had to do was order an extra trailer of supplies every week from his distributor near  Erie  less than 50 miles away .
Which in turn would have been a win win for him and the community by buying that much in bulk his in store prices would have been lower as well for the community. Well when I again asked why we where using this place in Washington county and why where we paying all this money dead silence and told non of my business you see this supplier was a big corporate contributor to council and some council members worked at the supplier . No collusion going on here whats that thing about a scout being truthful and honest. so we paid more to go to camp and a few execs  attaboys for dealing with a contributor right.
Let me tell you exactly what they call it its called crony capitalism and it borders on criminal  activity and is highly unethical but you never questioned and you still do not question  council and there back handed deals . What a dam shame ripping off the scouts there parents and yes you the taxpayer because federal funds go to the scouts in certain cases .

The Train the Trainer Event excluded all Parochial School Students

In the mid 70's when I was still in High  School The Allegheny Trails Council Now the Laurel Highlands Council  after several mergers  sent out notices to all troops of an important meeting being held in down town at the  YMCA auditorium Green Bar Bill  was coming to town with an important message  for all.
GBB as some called him came and presented a new train the trainer program  known as TTT for both youth and adults  which was to present all kind of new concepts to scouters .
It included a  special one week camp for youths who where above first class and where senior patrol  level  that was 4 scouts in our troop
Among the items the course provided where a special white cloth jacket to show you attended the training and a wooden walking stick.
great everyone in the audience thought .
Till they announced the date for the 3rd week in June . This meant any one going to any type of  Roman Catholic or other parochial  school etc. could not attend this course  as typically they go 1-2 weeks longer than public schools . In essence this knocked out 90% of the  scouts who lived in the City of Pittsburgh because all most all the troops where sponsored by Catholic  or  other Christian based churches and the vast majority of scouts who where catholic or christian went to parochial based private schools  in the city .

There was a loud uproar at the event about the date and as usual the council executives   most of whom where not Catholic  could care less.
So a program where young men could benefit the most where left out.
That summer a couple of scouts I ran into had participated and told me how they wished they had not gone as it was totally bogus and they where extremely disappointed in the program which GBB hyped up. The modern fore runner of these so called company retreats and training programs .
 After that summer you never saw any of the jackets or walking sticks again and no one ever mentioned it again which pretty much proved the program was a bust. Which I think was the whole Ideal in first place council did not have the money to provide properly for all who wanted to be involved so they made sure just certain scouts who they liked attended.
 This is not the scouting way
but this has always been what scouting executives have pulled against city scouts . When we had camporees it was always to help fix up the camps or other work projects very rarely was it ever to actually enjoy a camporee and scouting craft no that was for the soft suburban scouts. It was always made clear to city scouts the suburban scouts where special and better  at events always getting best seating at council wide camporees when they had evening shows or any type of competition   etc.etc  and as far as I can determine it still goes on to this day. What a shame. But when you look at that Taj Mahal  office they call Flag Plaza  on Bedford Ave in Pittsburgh  you can see the whole Frick and Carnegie  days all over again the city scouts being the employees and suburban scouts the bosses. Because thats how they have always run scouting in Pittsburgh since Mr. Phillips  retired from scouting in the 50's  who was a city man and based scouting on not where you where from .
Mr. Phillips never would have allowed such a Taj Mahal to be built. He treated all scouts and adults equal and thats why he has been maligned by council .

Disgusting this was permitted to go on heads need to roll for this

Boy Scouts release 'perversion' files

October 19, 2012 12:01 am

By Jason Felch and Kim Christensen / Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES -- The veil was lifted Thursday on decades of confidential sexual abuse allegations in the ranks of the Boy Scouts of America with the court-ordered release of more than 1,200 of the organization's "perversion files."
The files offer the public an unprecedented look at how suspected molestations were handled by one of the nation's leading youth organizations from the early 1960s through 1985, a time when awareness of sexual abuse was evolving rapidly.
"The secrets are out," said Kelly Clark, one of the plaintiff's lawyers in an Oregon lawsuit that resulted in a nearly $20 million judgment against the Scouts in 2010. "Child abuse thrives in secrecy, and secret systems are where it breeds. And these secrets are out."
Mr. Clark's office made the files public -- minus the names of victims and others who reported suspected abuse -- after the Oregon Supreme Court ordered their release in June at the request of news organizations including the Oregonian newspaper of Portland, Oregon Public Broadcasting, The New York Times and The Associated Press.
The Los Angeles Times is incorporating the files into its own online database, which contains information on nearly 5,000 such cases spanning 1947 to January 2005. The database offers a complete record of files during that period, except for an unknown number of files that have been purged by the Scouts over the years. The Los Angeles Times database can be found at http://spreadsheets.latimes.com/boyscouts-cases/.
In a statement Thursday, the Boy Scouts' national president, Wayne Perry, underscored the organization's enhanced child-protection efforts in recent years, including beefed-up background checks and training of leaders and mandatory reporting of all suspected abuse. He also acknowledged that incidents of abuse have occurred, some mishandled by the Scouts.
"There have been instances where people misused their positions in Scouting to abuse children, and in certain cases, our response to these incidents and our efforts to protect youth were plainly insufficient, inappropriate or wrong," he said. "Where those involved in Scouting failed to protect -- or, worse, inflicted harm on children -- we extend our deepest and sincere apologies to victims and their families."
In recent months, the Times has published an investigation of those files and thousands of case summaries from 1940 to 2005. The files and summaries were obtained from Seattle attorney Timothy Kosnoff, who has sued the Scouts on behalf of dozens of abuse victims.
The Times investigation has revealed a broad range of patterns in the Scouts' handling of abuse allegations that echo similar revelations about the Catholic Church and, more recently, the Penn State University scandal involving assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.
On Wednesday, the Times reported that the files revealed a clear pattern of grooming behavior, in which men seduced their young victims.
In September, the Times reported that the Boy Scouts of America failed to report hundreds of alleged child molesters to police and often hid the allegations from parents and the public. Scouting officials frequently urged admitted offenders to quietly resign and helped many to cover their tracks, allowing the molesters to cite bogus reasons for their departure.
In 80 percent of the 500 cases where the Scouts were the first to learn about abuse, there is no record of Scouting officials reporting the allegations to police.
In more than 100 of the cases, officials actively sought to conceal the alleged abuse or allowed the suspects to hide it, the Times found.
Nine days after the September report, the Boy Scouts announced that the organization would conduct a comprehensive review of some 5,000 files, going back to the 1940s, and would report to law enforcement any cases it had not previously disclosed.
In August, the Times reported that the blacklist -- for years the primary line of defense against child molesters -- was repeatedly breached.


First Published October 19, 2012 12:00 am

Eagle Scout Who Became a Corporate Puke

Back in 1980's when Mall's where all the cool thing I was called as President of a local mineral collectors  The Pittsburgh Mineral and Lapidary society group  a now defunct group and asked if we could put on a display at the mall while a large vendor who put on mineral shows was  there. Sure no problem I arranged to get stuff there and told them I would be there after I finished my work shift as a guard that morning as I had a pick up truck and could bring all the cases over. So members could fill them. I needed to be there set up and out by 9:00 am when mall opened which should have been no problem but guard who was suppose to relive me never showed up.
So I had to wait for replacement to show up and I was late getting there ad at 9:00 am I am on the top floor
of Century III Mall  no ones around and finishing things up. At 9:00 am the malls 3rd level is empty at the time many of the spaces where empty as well. But no matter one of the guards comes up and asks how long I will be I said about 20 more minutes, OK he says since there was no public on floor . but this was not good enough for a corporate puke for the mall  Dave who was a manager of the mall and fellow Eagle Scout he starts his horse shit I need off the floor period never mind I spent my time my gas to come put this display on and I had been delayed setting up being loyal to my job theirs no one on floor and I would be done in 20 minutes.
So I packed up and left and told big Man Dave to F-off  I don't Bowell down to corporate pukes .

So as I am on my way out the door on my last trip some bigger bosses come on floor and want to know whats going on I said ask your boy Dave and left. I get a call about 2 hours later asking me to come back the higher ups said Dave exceeded his authority.  So I did go back and they even had a mall janitor who helped me bring things in  and it was a good show for Mr. Freeland and all vendors he invited to show their gems and minerals.
for sale. the mall has been thru several owners and management company's and Dave is long gone .
 to e an Eagle Scout and act in such a manner you get disciplined by higher ups in unconscionable he is one of many eagles I have run across who need to turn their badges back in.

Boy Scouts and the Nazi's symbol on there badge

Yes that is a Swastika you see behind a Boyscout badge but do not let it throw you.
before the swastika became a  the universal sign of NAZI hatred
it was used as sign of good luck . Even Buddhas can be found with Swastikas on there heads .
This medal in particular was given to citizens who helped do good for scouting.
As far as any NAZI connection and scouting there are none to be found in fact Hitler wanted Baden Powell very dead as with the Boy Scouts movement  .
Many say the Hitler youth where modeled after the boy scouts this is not true either. Nor is the boyscout salute a Hitler salute that was used well before the Nazis ever did a Seig Heil yet there are those who would have you believe otherwise.
You will also find rhetoric to the fact Baden Powell was a homo sexual and pedophile again no truth found to this as well.
Lots of rumors and inuenda but no solid proof I could find anywhere. just those who can not stand right from wrong and being a good citizen trying to smudge the boy scout name.