Quapaw Area Council

Quapaw Area Council
Quapaw Area Council
Owner	Boy Scouts of America
Headquarters	Little Rock, Arkansas
Country	United States
Previous Pulaski County Council
Website quapawbsa.org

The Quapaw Area Council is is the largest local council of the Boy Scouts of America located in the state of Arkansas in both area and members and is headquartered in Little Rock.

Council History

The Boy Scouts of America began in Arkansas in 1913, when the Little Rock Council was chartered by the National Boy Scout Council and was directed by a volunteer commissioner. In 1920, the Little Rock Council was reclassified and W. G. Moseley became the first council executive in 1921. Two years later, the Little Rock Council was renamed to the Pulaski County Council.

In 1927, the Pulaski County Council was renamed the Quapaw Area Council and covered several counties. In 1934, the Kanawha Area Council of Jefferson County was split between the Quapaw Area Council and the De Soto Area Council, which had a council office in El Dorado (Union County).

In 2002 and 2012 respectively, the Eastern Arkansas Area Council and Ouachita Area Council merged with the Quapaw Area Council. These mergers enlarged the Quapaw Area Council from seventeen counties to thirty-nine counties.

The council serves over 18,000 youth and 3,600 adults in thirty-nine counties divided into nine districts, and approximately 100 boys become Eagle Scouts each year.

Council members who have received national honors include Dr. Raymond V. Biondo and Dr. David Briscoe, both of whom received the Silver Buffalo Award.

Districts

The Quapaw Area Council has nine Districts. These are:

1. Cherokee
2. Delta
3. Diamond Lake
4. Foothills
5. Mohawk
6. Saracen
7. Nischa Sipo
8. Three Rivers
9. Thunderbird

Camps

Currently the Quapaw Area Council owns and operates the Gus Blass Scout Reservation, west of Damascus, Arkansas.

The first permanent camping facilities for the Quapaw council was Camp Quapaw, opened in 1925. It was located on the Saline River west of Benton in Saline County. This early facility was limited so between 1930 and 1931, fifty-five additional acres were purchased, and a mess hall was constructed. The numbers of scouts attending camp increased which lead to an overuse of the facilities. Additionally, the Army Corps of Engineers was considering a dam on the Saline River. This would have flooded a section of the camp.

In 1975, the council acquired Camp Kiwanis, in order to accommodate more Scouts and camping activities. Camp Kiwanis was an unimproved site which included over 2,900 acres west of Damascus, Akransas. it was renamed the Cove Creek Scout Reservation and opened in 1976. Camp Quapaw was then closed and later sold.

In 1981, the portion of Cove Creek that was used as a permanent summer camping was names Camp Montgomery, after Nile Montgomery a previous scout executive, and the lake was named Lake Butler, for Richard C. Butler Sr., a supporter of the local scouting program.

In 2001, the Cove Creek Scout Reservation and Camp Nile Montgomery where renamed the Gus Blass Scout Reservation and Camp Rockefeller in honor of Gus Blass II and Lieutenant Governor Winthrop P. Rockefeller both of whom were supporters of the Boy Scout program for many years.

The Gus Blass Scout Reservation also includes the Donald W. Reynolds Scout Training Center. This facilities include a 320 seat dining hall with commercial kitchen, 88 person/28 room sleeping wing including two ADA compliant rooms,, 3 large classrooms, an area with a large fireplace, 2 large terraced areas and additional camping on the adjacent property.

Lodge

The Order of the Arrow Quapaw Lodge 160 was formed with fifteen members in June 1939 and inducted sixty-two members during the summer of 1939. Today, the lodge has about 500 members

See Also

• Scouting in Arkansas
• East Arkansas Area Council Historical Preservation Society