1958 Area 3A Neckerchief

In 1958, the lodges of Area 3A met at Camp Trexler, in the Poconos in Monroe County, Pennsylvania. The conference was hosted by Pohopoco Lodge #44; this was the second meeting hosted by Pohopoco and held at Trexler.

This was also the first Area 3A meeting at which a neckerchief was issued; the neckerchief was red with a white silk-screened design and a white chain-stitched border. The drum design is identical to the neckerchief issued in New York State for the 1957 Area 2H Conference (which is itself very similar to the neckerchief and patch from the 1956 Area 2H Conference).

Because the neckerchief was the only item issued for the 1958 conference and the first 3A neckerchief, it is highly sought after and fairly scarce.

The 1958 3A Conference was the first area meeting for Nentego Lodge #20, which had been chartered the previous year to re-establish the Order of the Arrow in Del-Mar-Va Council after a long hiatus. From 1958 through 1969, Area 3A consisted of eight lodges:

• Unami 1
• Minsi 5
• Nentico 12
• Nentego 20
• Octoraro 22
• Ajapeu 33
• Delmont 43
• Pohopoco 44

1957 Area 3A Patch

In June of 1957, the lodges of Area 3A met at Shikellamy Reservation near Reading Pennsylvania. Minsi Lodge #5 hosted the gathering.

The event patch was white twill with an attached tab that could be cut to go on a button, and featured the wolf totem of Minsi Lodge.

This patch is not uncommon, but for some reason there were a large number of threadbreaks in the manufacturing process and many of the 1957 3A patches in circulation are missing some part of the stitching.

1957 saw the re-establishment of the Order of the Arrow in Del-Mar-Va Council, with the creation of Nentego Lodge #20. The Nentego Lodge history page says that it was reorganized on June 22, 1957, which is probably the weekend of the Area 3A meeting. Nentego would not have had a delegation as such at the 1957 area meeting, but would have attended starting in 1958.

1956 Area 3A Slide

In June of 1956 the lodges of Area 3A met at Camp Ockanickon near the Delaware River in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Ajapeu Lodge #33 hosted the meeting; this was the first Area 3A event the lodge hosted.

A white plastic neckerchief slide was issued for the event; the design has the Ajapeu Lodge totem of a deer superimposed on a keystone. As in 1954, there is no date printed on the slide.

For the 1956 meeting, there was also a hand-made round leather emblem that was given to the participating lodge chiefs. This is quite possibly the rarest of all 3A pieces, as there were only seven lodges in the area.

1956 Area 3A Chiefs' Leather

1955 Area 3A Patch

On June 11-12, 1955, the lodges of Area 3A met at Treasure Island Camp; the event was a celebration of the fortieth anniversary of the host lodge, Unami #1, as well as of the Order of the Arrow.

The embroidered patch for this event is the first patch issued for an Area 3A activity. It features the shape of Treasure Island on a octagon, with a color scheme resembling Unami’s round patches of the era.

Particularly given its age, this is a surprisingly easy patch to find; the 3A issues from the early to mid-1960s are much scarcer than the 1955 patch.

1955 Area 3A Program

The 1955 meeting had a plastic comb-bound program book with the patch design illustrated on the cover. There was also a small (three-inch-high) notepad of blank paper with a printed cover that was issued to conference attendees.

1955 Area 3A Notepad

1954 Area 3A Slide

On May 1-2, 1954, Octoraro Lodge #22 hosted the Area 3A Pow Wow near Rising Sun, Maryland at Camp Horseshoe, which had been the site of the first Area E meeting in 1948. A yellow plastic neckerchief slide was issued for the event; the slide has the horseshoe logo of the camp, but does not indicate the date of the event.

1954 Area 3A Slide Artwork

Also pictured here is what appears to be the original artwork for the slide.   Interestingly, this artwork does show a date; it appears that the date was somehow left out when the slide was manufactured.

Camp Horseshoe in 1954 saw a much smaller group of lodges than had been at Camp Seven Mountains the year before. The lodges of northeastern Pennsylvania split off as the new Area 3D, and the lodges of central Pennsylvania–including 1953 3A host Monaken #103–split off as the new Area 3E.

One lodge was added, however; after meeting with Area 3C in Virginia in 1953, Nentico #12 returned to Area 3A in 1954. Camp Horseshoe is less than twenty miles from Baltimore’s Broad Creek Scout Reservation, and the lodges that remained in Area 3A were generally closer to Baltimore than the lodges of Area 3C.

1954 Area 3A Luggage Tag

The seven lodges in Area 3A in 1954 were:

• Unami 1
• Minsi 5
• Nentico 12
• Octoraro 22
• Ajapeu 33
• Delmont 43
• Pohopoco 44

As might be expected of the area including Unami Lodge #1, Area 3A contained many lodges with long and distinguished histories. Delmont #43 and Pohopoco #44, both founded in 1929, were the “youngest” lodges in the group.

1953 Area 3A Slide

In 1953, Monaken Lodge #103 hosted the lodges of Area 3A at Camp Seven Mountains near State College Pennsylvania.

A white plastic neckerchief slide was issued for the event; like the 1950, 1951, and 1952 slides, this slide is quite scarce and hard to find. The slide features the “heart of Pennsylvania” design used by the Juniata Valley Council, with the Camp Seven Mountains symbol inside the heart.

This was the first gathering of Area 3A without the lodges of Virginia, which were meeting in 1953 as the newly-formed Area 3C.

There were twenty lodges officially in Area 3A in 1953:

• Unami 1
• Minsi 5
• Susquehannock XI
• Wyona 18
• Octoraro 22
• Winingus 30
• Ajapeu 33
• Swatara 39
• Delmont 43
• Pohopoco 44
• Ah-Pace 58
• Monaken 103
• Memeu 125
• Acahela 223
• Quekolis 316
• Guneukitschik 317
• Wapsu Achtu 343
• Tiadaghton 384
• Tuckahoe 386
• Tunkhannock 476

Baltimore’s Nentico Lodge #12 was originally part of Area 3C and attended that meeting in 1953, but would return permanently to Area 3A in 1954.

This was the last time all these lodges met together; the lodges of northeastern Pennsylvania split off as Area 3D in late 1953, and the lodges of central Pennsylvania split off as Area 3E in either late 1953 or early 1954. Areas 3D and 3E both held their first events in 1954.

1952 Area 3A Slide

The 1952 Area 3A Pow-Wow was hosted by Memeu Lodge #125 and was held at Camp Nisatin (now a part of Hawk Mountain Scout Reservation) near Reading, Pennsylvania.

A red leather neckerchief slide was issued for the event. This is among the scarcest of the old 3A slides.

Two additional lodges were chartered in Area 3A in early 1952.   Lodge #470 was chartered in March in Washington, DC, initially without a name or totem (first becoming Amanquemack in 1953 and finally taking the name Amangamek-Wipit in 1955).

Tunkhannock Lodge #476 was also chartered in 1952, in Bethlehem, PA.

This brought to 29 the total number of lodges officially in Area 3A:

• Unami 1
• Nawakwa 3
• Minsi 5
• Susquehannock XI
• Nentico 12
• Wyona 18
• Octoraro 22
• Winingus 30
• Ajapeu 33
• Swatara 39
• Delmont 43
• Pohopoco 44
• Ah-Pace 58
• Monaken 103
• Memeu 125
• Koo Koo Ku Hoo 161
• Acahela 223
• Shenandoah 258
• Shenshawpotoo 276
• Quekolis 316
• Guneukitschik 317
• Wapsu Achtu 343
• Blue Heron 349
• Tiadaghton 384
• Tuckahoe 386
• Powhatan 456
• Kecoughtan 463
• (Amanquemack) 470
• Tunkhannock 476

Even though not all of these lodges were likely in attendance at the 1952 Pow-Wow–at a minimum, Wyona had fallen dormant and was not revived until 1954, and Amanquemack 470 did not induct members until late in the year–it seems clear that Area 3A was becoming too large to gather conveniently. This would be the last year in which all these lodges gathered together; according to the 1957 Area 3C Manual, a vote was made at the 1952 Pow-Wow to split the southern lodges off to form Area 3C. Chanco Lodge #483 was chartered in September in Suffolk VA as a part of Area 3C.

(Sources include the Hawk Mountain Council web page, the online Amangamek-Wipit lodge history and Glenn Chase’s page of Chanco Lodge issues.)

1951 Area 3A Slide

Delmont Lodge #43 hosted the 1951 Area 3A Pow Wow at Camp Delmont in Marlborough Township, Pennsylvania. The conclave neckerchief slide was green plastic with a red Indian head and tan lettering.

Camp Delmont is among the oldest Scout camps in the USA, and is now a part of the Cradle of Liberty Council’s Musser Scout Reservation.

In 1951, two new Area 3A lodges were chartered in Virginia: Powhatan 456 and Kecoughtan 463. This brought the total number of lodges in the area to 27.

1950 Area 3A Slide

In 1950 Nentico Lodge #12 hosted the lodges of eastern Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia for the Area 3A Fellowship Pow-Wow on April 29-30 at the two-year-old Broad Creek Scout Camps in Whiteford, Maryland.   The event featured the first known piece of Area 3A memorabilia, a burned wooden slice neckerchief slide saying “Broad Creek” and “WWW”.

Literally hundreds of different wooden “slice” neckerchief slides were issued at Broad Creek between 1950 and the mid-1970s.   The design of the 1950 3A slide was also used for a camp slide that year–the camp slide has “BSA” where the 3A slide has “WWW”–and continued to be used for dated slides each summer through 1969. The camp ranger in 1950 is credited with having made the original burned slides.

The 1950 3A slide is not, strictly speaking, the rarest of the Broad Creek “slice” slides; in the late 1960s and early 1970s, unique slides were designed and made for individual staff members. However, the 3A slide is the most highly sought-after of the Broad Creek slides, and the 1950 slide is among the rarest of the 3A meeting items.

When Nentico hosted the 1972 3A conference, the front cover of the booklet featured small reproductions of the booklets from earlier area conferences at Broad Creek.   The simple typewritten cover of the 1950 3A booklet described the event as the “Fellowship Pow-Wow”.

In 1950, Area 3A consisted of the same twenty-five lodges as it had in 1949.

(Date source: Blue Heron Lodge History)

Fake 1962 Area 3A Patch

I was going to hold off on mentioning the fake Area 3A patch that has been recently circulating until I got to the appropriate year, but yesterday a second fake surfaced.   There are now modern fakes circulating of both the 1962 and the 1966 Area 3A conference patches, both originating from an eBay seller in Germany.   The fakes are clearly of modern manufacture, and are most easily distinguished by their cut edges (the real issues have rolled edges).

Fake 1966 Area 3A Patch

The 1962 fake has been circulating since April; just yesterday I saw for the first time a fake of the 1966 conference patch.

The lodges of eastern Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia met in both 1948 and 1949, but there are no known memorabilia items from these meetings.

In 1948, the Area E conference was hosted by Octoraro Lodge 22 at Camp Horseshoe on May 1-2.

In 1949, the Area 3A conference was hosted by Pohopoco Lodge 44 at Camp Trexler on April 23-24. At the time, the Vigil Honor was often conferred at Area conferences rather than at lodge events; Ray Garrabrandt of Virginia was so honored at the 1949 conference.

At the start of 1948, Area E contained twenty-three lodges:

• Unami 1
• Nawakwa 3
• Minsi 5
• Susquehannock XI
• Nentico 12
• Wyona 18
• Octoraro 22
• Winingus 30
• Ajapeu 33
• Swatara 39
• Delmont 43
• Pohopoco 44
• Ah-Pace 58
• Monaken 103
• Memeu 125
• Ne-Pah-Win 161
• Acahela 223
• Shenandoah 258
• Shenshawpotoo 276
• Quekolis 316
• Guneukitschik 317
• Wapsu Achtu 343
• Blue Heron 349

Two additional lodges in the area were first chartered during 1948: Tiadaghton 384 and Tuckahoe 386. It is not known whether these lodges were present at the Area E meeting that year, but they are on the list of Area 3A lodges as of September 1948.

A word on the terminology: for consistency with coverage of other areas I am referring to the area as “3A”.   However, over a wide variety of memorabilia I have seen, inconsistency is the rule in the naming of both the area and its events. “III-A”, “III A”, “IIIA”, “3-A”, and “3A” are all used multiple times to refer to the area.   The event is generally called a “Pow Wow” in the 1950s and a “Conference” in the 1960s and 1970s, but other terms are used and the boundaries are flexible. There are even years in which different names for both the area and the event appear on different memorabilia items.

Update: finding the location of the 1949 conference proved to be a challenge. Some of the findings are documented in the comments below. There were references to the conference being both at Treasure Island (with Unami Lodge hosting) and at Camp Trexler (with Pohopoco Lodge hosting). Most of these tracked back to one of two lodge histories from the late 1960s: a Shenshawpotoo Lodge history pointed to Pohopoco/Trexler, and a Blue Heron Lodge history pointed to Unami/Treasure Island. All other more recent sources turned out to have been derived from one of these two histories.

Michael McCaughan found a 1951 report and history from Blue Heron Lodge which had contemporary meeting minutes indicating that the 1949 conference was held in Allentown. Based on this, it appears that Pohopoco was the host that year and that sources listing Unami are in error.

(Sources: Dingwerth and Jensen’s Order of the Arrow Conclave Handbook, Volume 1, Rob Higgins’ OA Section List website, Blue Heron Lodge History, Dave Hultberg’s list of conclaves attended by Susquehannock Lodge, and a communication from Michael McCaughan)

Region 3

This will be the first in what I hope will be a long series of entries covering the conferences of the old Region 3, following on John’s coverage of conferences and conclaves from North Carolina.

The old Region 3 consisted of the states of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia, along with Washington DC and the tip of the eastern panhandle of West Virginia.

While most of the twelve pre-1972 regions are more or less intact within the current BSA regional boundaries, the 1973 move to six regions saw the old Region 3 split between the Northeast and Southeast Regions.   (From 1973 through 1983, Pennsylvania was in the Northeast and Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and Washington DC were in the Southeast; in 1983, Maryland, Delaware, Washington DC, and the Virginia counties surrounding DC were moved into the Northeast Region.) Today, the Region 3 lodges and their successors are split between the Northeast Region and the Southern Region.

In the original 1938 assignment of numbered areas, Region 3 was split in two parts: eastern Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia were Area 4 and western Pennsylvania was Area 5. (Washington DC and Delaware were assigned to Area 4 but did not have OA lodges until 1952 and 1957, respectively)

When lettered areas were created in 1940, the same division was made: Area D consisted of twelve lodges in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia; Area E consisted of seven lodges in western Pennsylvania. By December 1942, a split in Area C (New York and New Jersey) had caused the letters to be bumped up, so the Region 3 groupings became Area E (eastern Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia) and Area F (western Pennsylvania).

There is no record of any Area Meetings having been held in Region 3 prior to 1948, when both Area E and Area F met. My next two postings will look at the pre-1950 meetings in these areas.

UPDATE: the preceding paragraph is incorrect. A Unami Lodge history indicates that Unami Lodge hosted an Area Conference in honor of the lodge’s 30th anniversary in 1945 at Breyer Training Area. An incomplete scan of an Anicus Lodge letter indicates that an Area Conference was hosted by Kuwewanik Lodge in 1947 at Camp Hubbard  and the tone of the letter indicates that previous such conference had been held.

In addition, an Octoraro Lodge history indicates that a Regional Conference was held in 1929 at Camp Horseshoe.

(Historical area alignment information is taken from the appendices of Dingworth and Jensen’s Order of the Arrow Conclave Handbook, Volume 1 and from Rob Higgins’ OA Section List website. I also consulted the 1983 edition of The Brotherhood of Cheerful Service, published by Unami Lodge, and a 1976 edition of 50 Years of Cheerful Service, published by Octoraro Lodge. Many thanks.)