Scouting, Volume 60, Number 1, January-February 1972 Page: 6
68, [20] p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The new junior leader
training may be as important
as B-Fs camp on Broivnsea Isle.
MIRACLE ON
MAXWELL MESA
ON a cool but cloudless evening
last July, a select handful of
Scouters from all over the country
gathered outside the Rayado mess-
hall at the Philmont Scout Ranch
and Explorer Base. As each man
cooked a steak over the glowing
coals, the conversation mostly was
about the weather: When would
the drought plaguing New Mexico
end? Did the ranch have enough
drinking water to finish the season?
How long could Philmont's famed
buffalo herd survive without rain?
Inside the messhall moved the
Scouters. The small talk continued
as they consumed the steaks, roast-
ing ears and watermelon. A casual
observer couldn't have guessed
from the conversation that the
Scouters—most wore Wood Badge
beads, significant of the thorough
Wood Badge training course—were
at Rayado to assess changes in
junior leader training. Every one of
the volunteers had spent some time
observing a different patrol in one
of the four training troops camped
on Maxwell Mesa. Now they were
ready to report their findings to
Jack C. Keeton, director of the
Scouting Division of the Boy Scouts
of America.
By DICK PRYCE
By the time the sun had slid be-
hind that famous Philmont land-
mark, the Tooth of Time, the assess-
ment session was in full swing. One
by one the men—many were Scout-
masters—stood up to testify that
only rarely had they seen such out-
standing patrols as those in the
training troops camped in the hills
flanking Rayado Creek.
The praise was so lavish that I
began to wonder if maybe the camp
on that dusty New Mexico mesa
wasn't the greatest thing that ever
happened to boys since Brownsea
Isle. Scouting Magazine had sent
me to Rayado to report on Phil-
mont's 1971 junior leader training
because, to be completely honest,
there was talk that something big
was going on. Near the end of the
Scouters' assessment meeting, one
of them stood up.
"What's going on up there," he
said, jerking his thumb toward the
hills, "is terrific. The patrols and
troops are operating more smoothly
than I thought possible. Those kids
have—well, they have something
like the Wood Badge spirit!"
Coming from a man who wore
the beads himself, the comment
meant to me that something akin to
a Scouting miracle was unfolding
on Maxwell Mesa. Although 1 didn't
know it as I sat there, my personal
observations over the next few days
would convince me that I was wit-
nessing a profound improvement in
junior leader training—refinements
that will change and improve an
already good Scouting program.
Suddenly another man stood up.
"What those Scouts really have," he
said, "is true Scouting spirit"—and
in the days to follow I was to reflect
on these words over and over.
None of the five, 12-day National
Junior Leader Instructor Training
camps held at Philmont last sum-
mer got off to a magnificent start.
Upon arrival at Rayado, the Scouts
were formed into arbitrary patrols.
A young staff member wearing a
red beret guided each patrol
around. This guide did not enter
into the patrol as a patrol member;
he simply saw that his patrol got
from one place to another. The guy
in the red beret was pleasant
enough, but he seemed to be some
kind of a dum-dum. In short, he
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 60, Number 1, January-February 1972, periodical, January 1972; New Brunswick, New Jersey. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth353658/m1/10/: accessed May 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.