XT09-10-11-12

1943 - 1946 Cedar Valley Camper Segments

Description:       During the earliest years of Cedar Valley we had four colored 1/4 circle segments that were intended to be used around a common patch (RT-07). Each year, a camper would receive a different segment. It's no longer clear to us if a particular color represented a specific year, or if it represented the number of times a person camped at Cedar Valley.

The first years of Cedar Valley operation as a Boy Scout camp were also the years of World War II. The camp ran its on gardens and slaughtered a few head of cattle to ensure a meat supply. Even though money and leaders must have both been in short supply, we somehow raised over $50,000 to expand the camp from the initial 95 acres to 255, and to build more cabins and facilities. Attendance steadily grew nearly every year, as the size of our council membership also increased. It is very conceivable that one area where we cut corners was in the area of camp insignia. It would have been very economically minded to have a common center patch with less expensive, and probably generic, segments used each year for a period of time.

This particular patch set is one of a very few sets that we know of today. This one was donated originally to our council by Floyd "Q-Ball" Pearce. Floyd was a very important scouter in our early years and was well known for teaching handicrafts and Indian Lore. Numerous photographs still exist showing Q-Ball teaching handicraft and also in one of his outfits. He was our handicraft director in 1941 at Kia Kima, and continued in that role through the war years to 1948 at Cedar Valley. During the war, he worked for the government and was given special permission to leave his work just to staff our camp. Floyd was inducted as a Vigil member of our Order of the Arrow lodge in 1964.

Camp Location: Hardy, Arkansas
Designation:       XT-09 (Gold), XT-10 (Purple), XT-11 (Blue), XT-12 (White).
Characteristics: Cut edge solid color stitch; about 10mm wide.

Back to Old Cedar Valley Index

Copyright © 2000-2004
EAAC Historical Preservation Society
e-mail: eaac@eaac.org
Rev 25 Nov 2004 sw