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Culture
If these adobe walls could talk
One hundredth anniversary of Troop 2, Boy Scouts of America. By Christina Stock Vision Editor
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magine the year 1916. New Mexico was a different place. The U.S. had not yet entered into World War I (that would happen in 1917). President Woodrow Wilson had been in office three years and, in retaliation against the attack of Pancho Villa on the small New Mexican border town of Columbus, 150,000 U.S. soldiers were sent into Mexico. That included Roswell’s Regiment A of 296 men, followed by the U.S. 7th and 10th Cavalry regiments under John J. Pershing. Later that year President Wilson incorporated the Boy Scouts of America. At that time, Roswell was producing millions of apples for the U.S. (The orchards
were all destroyed in the freeze of the ‘30s.) The same year the brothers Cobean opened Cobean Stationery Co. in Roswell. According to the documents of the Roswell Troop 2, Boy Scouts of America and the book “Saga of Potato Canyon” by Minor S. Huffman, that was also the year Boy Scout Troop 2 was started by Sunday school teacher Tomlinson Fort of the South Methodist Church in Roswell. Her husband, Tom Fort, was volunteered by her to be the Scout Master. The original scouts were Tom Fort Jr., Elmer Egglesten, Herbert Dimmit, Ted and Harry Brough, Wendell Doty, George Jewett Jr., Pruit Denning, Adolph Wilson, Joe and Jim McKnight, Carl Bird, Louis Heisig, Don and Minor Huffman, Bob Fall, Hinton and
Paul Wilmot, and Robert Hamilton. In 1921 the Methodist conference bought land near the village of Weed, in Aqua Chiquita canyon. For several years, young people’s assembly was held at the Boy Scout camp in Potato Canyon (now Camp Wehinahphay) until completion of the Sacramento Methodist Assembly. The camp is still used today. In 1922, Troop 2 was the first group of Boy Scouts to tour the Carlsbad Caverns. Jim White, lowered the scouts down the main shaft 180 feet in a bucket, two at a time, where they got to spend the night exploring the caves. Today, Troop 2 still goes to the Carlsbad Caverns. The Boy Scout council, which is now known as the Conquistador council, began in 1924 and Minor Huffman of
Troop 2 became the first council executive. The council began with five troops, four were from Roswell. Today only one of the original troops remain, Troop 2. The troop is located at 806 N. Missouri Ave. It was built in 1937 on reclaimed land from the river. It was expanded in the 1970s when the troop had more than 100 scouts, adding patrol and storage rooms to the one-room adobe building. In the late ‘80s, Troop 2 was facing a crisis. “Troop 2 was going to lose their charter,” Juliana Halvorson remembers. Her late husband John was involved with police explorers then and had been a Boy Scout in the troop, earning his Eagle Scout. “The Council asked him to be scout master so they would not lose it. They didn’t want the oldest troop in the area — possibly the state — to lose their charter. We had many wonderful years as leaders in the troop. But alas, we had girls so we switched gears.” In the ‘90s, Troop 2 made it into the national Boy’s Life magazine. Throughout its 100 years of existence, Troop 2 has produced 81 known Eagle Scouts. There could have been more, but the records of the ‘40s and ‘60s have been lost. “Over the years the scouts in Roswell became teachers, oceanographers, military leaders, one became a forensic anthropologist and others became judges,” scout master David Hein said. “The father of painter Peter Hurd, Harold, organized Troop 1 in late 1915. Peter and his son Michael were scouts.” The basic aims of a Boy Scout includes learning to take care of them-
selves, to be helpful to others, and to develop courage, self-reliance, and the will to be ready to serve in an emergency. The scouting movement has taught America’s youth to do their best at all times, to do their duty to “God and country,” to help others, and to prepare themselves physically, mentally and morally to meet these goals. These goals are reflected in the Boy Scout oath and the boys achieved these goals with earning merit badges. “These merits changed throughout our history,” scout master Hein said. “We used to have more agrarian badges. Today it includes computer, vocations, robotic badges.” In total there are 147 merit badges. “Very few can get them all,” he said. Assistant Scout Master Greg J. Nibert is an attorney in town. He got involved with the scouts when his son joined. Scouts are boy-led. “The older boys are re-teaching the skills they were taught and all are learning. The kids experience leading,” Nibert said. When parents volunteer for the first time to join the children during the camping excursions, they are in for a surprise. “The parents get educated. The boys are in charge, not the parents,” Nibert said. “They learn how to build fires, cook, skills that hold up later. I used those skills when I joined the Air Force,” Hein said. In the last 10 years the Boy Scouts of Troop 2 canoed through the Big Bend National Park in Texas. They braved numerous times the rapids of the Rio Pecos, dipped their paddles in Lea Lake and Elephant Butte. They climbed the lava beds at Valley of Fires and got sand in
Vision Magazine |
their teeth reenacting the Bataan Death March at White and Mesquite Sands during the annual memorial march. They walked the Walk to End Alzheimer’s and visited fellow citizens who have contracted this fatal disease. They place each year flags on veterans graves and are part of retiring Old Glory, honoring the flag and the veterans who defended it. They learn what it means to be an U.S. citizen. And this coming Memorial Day, they will be posting flags at South Park Cemetery. The public is invited to join the Boy Scouts of Troop 2 on May 14 and celebrate its 100th anniversary of Boy Scouting in Roswell, at 2 p.m. at the historic Scout Hut, 806 N Missouri Ave. For this special occasion metal artist Bob Goode created a new sign for the Boy Scouts. “It’s going to be much easier to find us now,” said Hein. The alumni will be there to reminisce about their days in Troop 2 and the most recent Boy Scouts will be there too. To celebrate the centennial there a new troop flag will be displayed and commemorative coins with the Conquistador logo are available. Every alumni gets one for free. Others pay $10 for the limited coins. There will be also a patch available for $5. The official celebration takes place at 4 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church, 200 N. Pennsylvania Ave. For more information, call Brenda Morrow at 575-626-4394 or Cassie Gross at 575-637-2514. Follow them on Facebook at groups/BSATroop2Roswell.
Thursday, May 5, 2016
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