Scout Executive - A Scouting Journey

September 28, 2017

Philmont- A Scouting and Family Legacy

These properties are donated and dedicated to the Boy Scouts of America for the purpose of perpetuating So that these future citizens may through thoughtful adult guidance and by the inspiration of nature visualize and form a code of living to diligently maintain these high ideals and our proper destiny. Faith- Self-reliance- Integrity- Freedom Principles used to build this great country by the American Pioneer.
Waite Phillips December 37, 7947 (Inscription on plaque at Philmont and Philtower)

September 28th, 2017 - At Philmont Outdoor Adventures Conference

As I am on my 14th visit to Philmont, I continue to be amazed at the breadth and depth of the impact Philmont has made on my life and the lives of so many I have known through the years. Growing up my dad often spoke of his trip to Philmont, which I found out later was the first expedition to Philmont from Alabama. By coincidence, I received a email from Charles Glass, back in 2014 sharing with me his write up of this first expedition, he was one of the Scouts who made this trip, Mr. Glass did not know when he sent the email that my father had been on the same trip with him. Here is the story as told by Mr. Glass:

Alabama’s First Philmont Expedition

July 5 to Aug 3, 1956

Thursday morning, July 5, 1956, forty Scouts and five adult leaders prepared to depart from Bessemer, AL enroute to Philmont Scout Ranch, Cimmaron, NM. Our transportation was two cattle trucks and a Cadillac, which belonged to the Doctor.

Zack (Chief) Cross, Edd Farley, Dr. , and two other adults directed the loading of the vehicles. Each truck bed was covered with a canvas top, much like a conestoga wagon, and was fitted with wooden bench seats on each side and a row of seating down the middle of the bed which Chief and Mr. Farley had built. Our packs and supplies were loaded into the front quarter of the beds and the Scouts secured their seats for the trip west.

My Scouting career began at the tender age of six when my father, Ray Glass, was the Asst. Scout Master at Troop 67, sponsored by the First Baptist Church in Fairfield, AL. My first trip to summer camp came in the summer of 1947 when I was allowed to accompany Dad and the troop to Camp Arrowhead. By the time I was old enough to become a Scout (age 12), we had moved to Concord, AL and I became a member of Troop 44, sponsored by Earnest Methodist Church. We enjoyed several years of summer camp at Camp Arrowhead and Indian Valley, where I earned many of the Merit Badges required for Eagle.

By 1956, I had advanced to the rank of Life Scout and had extensive camping experience in and around Alabama when the opportunity to join the crew headed for Philmont arrived, Dad was convinced that I should make the trip. The total cost for the trip was $80.00, a rather large amount at the time, and upon arrival home we received a refund of about $10.00. Dad was, at that time, a Neighborhood Commissioner in the Bessemer/Hueytown area and had come to know Chief Cross quite well.

Our trip to Philmont was a rather long one due to the fact that the trucks were limited in their speed on the highways. I rode in the truck that was driven by Edd Farley (this was long before he gained the name of “Pop”) and each day a new Scout was allowed to ride in the cab with him. Mr. Farley was hilarious to ride with. When he passed a car on those two lane highways, he would remain in the left lane until the Scout riding with him gave him the “all clear” so he could merge back into the left lane. He had a tight grip on the steering wheel and would rock back and forth nervously as he kept asking if it was clear. We drove him half way to Cimmaron in the left lane.

As was Chief’s custom, every Scout must be in full summer Scout uniform for the entire trip. We wore the dark green blouses of the Explorer Scouts with Boy Scout green shorts and dark green wool stockings with the elastic stocking holders complete with the red tassels. Prior to the trip, we made two “shake down” trips in order to learn our assignments for the “big trip”. We camped on the road some nights, in a girl scout camp one night and slept in a barrack on an Air Force Base one night.

It required nearly a full week to get from Bessemer to Cimmaron. We arrived at Philmont late in the afternoon and spent the first night at the main headquarters. The next day, we went to our training base site at the Carson/Maxwell Base Camp. There we spent a week learning how to cook with dutch ovens and how to pack for the 12 day trek that lay ahead of us.

Twelve days on the trail led us from the southern most part of the ranch to the northern most part. It was a tremendous experience that I have never forgotten. On the trip home we went to Carlsbad Caverns and on to El Paso, Tx where we had our first experience at international travel when we crossed the border into Mexico for the day.

We left Bessemer on Highway 11 and returned on the newly opened section of I-59 from Brookwood to Bessemer.

In my scouting memorabilia I have a picture of our Crew that was made the day we arrived. I am attaching a copy of it for your files. There are several of the members of the crew that I can identify now but I definitely remember each of the other Scouts on the trip.

I am the fourth from the right on the second row wearing the black cowboy hat and sporting the cow vertabra neckchief slide. The young man to my immedate left is Ronnie Mason, from Hueytown. The third from the left on the front row is James Alvie White, another member of Troop 44 from Concord and my next door neighborat the time.

As Written by Charlie Glass

Thanks again to Mr. Glass for sharing with me this letter and the picture, which was the first time I saw the crew photo from my dad's trip, he had lost his copy.