This Day in History: The Boy Scouts of America

On this day in 1912, Arthur Rose Eldred is notified that he will be the Boy Scouts of America’s first Eagle Scout. Did you know that the Boy Scouts might never have existed in America, but for the fact that a Chicago publisher got lost in a London fog in 1909?

William D. Boyce was looking for a particular address in London when he got caught in a dense fog. He stopped a young man, asking for directions. That boy did more than just give directions. He personally led Boyce to his destination. When Boyce tried to offer him a tip, the boy refused. He was a Scout, he noted, and he believed in doing Good Turns for others.

Boyce had to learn more.

He obtained an introduction to the founder of scouting in Britain. Robert Baden-Powell was a former military man and the author of a manual intended for military use. One day, he discovered that boys in England were interested in his manual.

Let’s just say that these English boys weren’t using his military tricks in the most productive ways.

Arthur Rose Eldred's Eagle Scout Medal

Baden-Powell decided to capitalize on the boys’ interest, but to redirect their efforts toward more useful ventures. He began working on a second manual, Scouting for Boys, and he tested his ideas with a group of 22 boys at a two-week camp.

The Boy Scouts were born! Well, at least they were in England. The idea would come to America about a year later when the so-called “Unknown Scout” offered his assistance to Boyce on that foggy London day.

Boyce returned home, with the tenets of scouting ringing in his ears. He joined with other like-minded Americans to form a new scouting organization in America, and the Boy Scouts of America was incorporated on February 8, 1910.

No one ever discovered the identity of the Unknown Scout, but a monument was later erected in his honor in London. The statue bears an inscription:

To the Unknown Scout whose

Faithfulness in the

Performance of the Daily

Good Turn brought the

Scout Movement to the

United States of America.

We are now living through a new chapter in the history of the Boy Scouts, of course, For instance, just last year, the organization changed its name to Scouting America. Not everyone is thrilled with some of these changes, and they worry that the mission of the organization will be undermined.

What do you think?

Primary Sources:

• Founders of the BSA (Boy Scouts of America website)

• Lord Baden-Powell (Scouting America: Order of the Arrow)

• Mark Ray, Faces of the Founders (Scouting Magazine; Jan.-Feb. 2010) (reprinted HERE)

• Max L. Christensen, Turning Points: Stories of People Who Made a Difference (1993)

• Robert Peterson, The Man Who Got Lost in the Fog (Scouting Magazine; Oct. 2001) (reprinted HERE)

• The BSA’s First Eagle Scout: Arthur Rose Eldred (Eagle Scout website)