23rd Annual Friends Of Scouting Luncheon Held Feb. 24

Aiden Castellanet - Student Body President from Signal Mountain Middle High School Interview from CityScope Magazine

The Adventure Begins!

100 years ago in 1925, the Chattanooga Council built their second scout camp, Camp Tsatanugi, the namesake of Boy Scout Road in Hixson. It served as the summer camp for 25 years, and was used for other activities for even longer. Two of the buildings from this camp still stand, now owned by the Highland Sportsman Club, which has done a great job of preserving them. The largest building is Patten Hall, which was given by the sons of John A. Patten in his honor. It served as the dining hall for the camp.

This is a subtitle for your new post

The Original Scout Camp Mascot - Carranza the Mule

Chattanooga's First Scout Camp - Boulder Nook

Scout Shopping through History When you need a new scout uniform, you probably look online or head to the scout office on Lee Highway. Well, for most of Scouting’s history, this would not have been the case. The Scout office was just that, an administrative location. They distributed awards to Scoutmasters with advancement reports, but didn’t keep much else in stock. Until the 1990s, the majority of scout gear was sold through local department stores. Many alumni will recall that through the 1970s and 1980s the primary dealer in the Chattanooga area was JC Penney, at both Northgate and Eastgate Malls. Back to the 1930s, Loveman’s and Miller Bro’s department stores were the main distributors, often running ads in the scout newsletter. If they didn’t have something in stock, they would order it for you. In Cleveland the Hardwick Woolen Mills store became the main scout distributor early on. A Miller Bro’s location took over in 1968, JC Penney in the 80s, and Outdoor Adventures in the early 90s. Lafayette, GA had a retailer in the 1970s, a men's store called The Boston Store. The Tennessee Copper Company’s general store in Copperhill, the Smelter Store, was the main distributor for Polk County until closing in 1969. Ferris Maloof, then third-generation owner of the family’s general store, recalled filling this void in a 2024 interview with the history committee. “After the copper company’s store closed, I picked up the uniform business. I ordered from the National Supply, mostly uniforms. I had a few things like the cook kits and canteens and small stuff, I didn’t get in any really heavy stuff. Badges still had to be ordered by the scoutmaster from the office in Chattanooga.”  Having settled into the new office on Lee Highway, in 1994 the Cherokee Area Council obtained an official Scout Distributorship License. This expanded the store at our scout office and ended the era of department store distributors in this area, centralizing everything in one convenient location. If you have memories of shopping for scout gear at any local place not listed in this article, we’d love to hear about it! Thank you Jordan Broadwell for composing this article!