Boy Scout Troop 111 celebrates 75 years

SANDPOINT — Boy Scout Troop 111, which was first chartered in October of 1934, will celebrate its 75th anniversary on Nov.  12 at 7 p. m.  in the Sandpoint Community Hall — scouting’s local home for more than seven decades.

Troop 111 now has about 30 members according to scoutmaster Laszlo Suto, who said some scouts have moved to more conveniently located troops, including Cocolalla, St.  Joseph’s Catholic Church and two troops that meet at different Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints buildings.

Between them, the local Boy Scouts represent a tradition that goes back to 1916, when Troop 1 was formed by Rev.  W. G.  Asher at the local Christian Church. The Pend d’Oreille Review newspaper reported that 50 boys wanted to join, but troop size was limited to 32. By 1919, another troop was formed in Laclede.

In the spring of 1921, two local Boy Scouts used their life-saving skills when one of the first airplane flights out of Sandpoint ended with a watery landing in Lake Pend Oreille. Pilot John Van Alste of Goldendale, Wash. , was fished out of the lake by scouts Hudson Livingston and Edward Thomason. That same year, Sandpoint troops were reorganized, resulting at least three groups here and additional troops in Bonners Ferry.

Doug Guy became active in Boy Scouts at about the same time that Charles A.  Stidwell stepped in as a scoutmaster in the late-1920s. Now 94, Guy recalls the impression that Stidwell — then principal at Farmin Elementary — made on boys at the time.

“Charlie Stidwell got involved back in the ‘20s and we first met in a little room on Second Avenue in the Daily Bulletin building,” Guy said. “I classify him, officially, as a second father. We all benefited by having someone like Charlie lead us through scouting. ”

By 1931, Troop 1 had become Troop 110 and had grown so large that meetings were moved to the gym of its sponsor organization, the Elk’s Club, according to an article in the Northern Idaho News. Charlie Stidwell was still scoutmaster and a total of five boys — Douglas Palmer, Harold Smith, Harold Bancroft, Bill Boies and Doug Guy — had reached the rank of Eagle Scout. The next year, three troops met in a scouting contest at the SHS gymnasium to compete in activities such as the fireman’s carry, blanket-stretcher relay and knot-tying relay.

It was also in 1932 that Scoutmaster Stidwell and Eagle Scout Doug Guy made front-page news in the Oct.  3 edition of the Daily Bulletin. Stidwell and four Eagle Scouts were on a hike near the old Baldy Mountain lookout station, when Guy made a detour that resulted in a night spent alone in the hills.

“You know that old Yogi Berra saying that goes, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it?’” he asked. “I took the wrong fork.

“My scouting experience came in good stead,” he continued, explaining that he knew enough to find a protected spot under a windfall and hole up for the night. The next morning, he managed to find the Sand Creek drainage and walk back into town, arriving home in time for breakfast. In the meantime, search parties were still scouring Baldy to find the boy, not knowing he had already found himself.

In a 1935 publication titled the “Troop 1 Memory Trail,” the first mention of a new meeting place for scouts — “the proposed Community Hall” — appears in a piece written by Judge E. E.  Hunt.

“Now it exists only on blueprints and in our visions,” he wrote. “To Scouts and Scouters of Bonner County, our dream will soon come true. ”

Using logs donated by the Humbird Lumber Co. , the 4,500-square-foot structure was erected in 1936 and scout troops descended on it immediately for meetings and competitions. The hall doubled as a USO Center for servicemen stationed at Farragut Naval Station during World War II and eventually became the focal point for other community gatherings. In 1945, area scouts added the 840-square foot “Scout Room” that continues to be used today.

The scouting movement grew through the 1950s to the point where troops in Bonner and Boundary County were transferred from the Inland Empire Council to the newly created Idaho Panhandle Council, as reported in the Feb.  20, 1958, edition of the Sandpoint News-Bulletin.

The following decade proved to be especially productive for scouting and many of the headline moments took place at Farragut.  In 1964, the decommissioned naval station was leveled, graded and seeded in preparation for the National Girl Scout Roundup in 1965. The Girl Scout program, which already had a long and productive history in North Idaho, got a strong boost from the event, which brought some 12,000 girls from across the U. S.  to camp on the shores of Lake Pend Oreille.

In 1967, local Boy Scouts followed suit as they were joined by more than 13,000 other scouts from around the world during the 12th World Jamboree at Farragut, which also hosted the National Jamboree in 1969. As the ‘60s drew to a close, scouting rosters in and around Sandpoint included about 225 Cub Scouts, a combined total of nearly 300 Girls Scouts and Boy Scouts and more than 50 members of Sea Scouts and Explorers.

The girls’ and boys’ programs swung into the 1970s with considerable momentum, hosting a joint International Exposition in 1971 that also included Canadian Scouts. The largest scouting event ever to hit the region — the National Jamboree-West — took place during the first week of August 1973, when about 30,000 Boy Scouts congregated at Farragut.

Troop 111’s claim to longevity was sealed in the 1980s, when Troop 110 was consolidated into its ranks.

According to Ron Clawson, who acted as Troop 111 scoutmaster from 1988-2000, leadership faltered in the mid-1980s and the troop’s future was in jeopardy when numbers fell off alarmingly.

“The troop was just about dead when I took over,” he said. “The boys had no respect for Troop 111 and almost all of them had quit.

“I called them all up and said, ‘We’re going to make some changes and if you want to come back, you’re welcome to,’” he added. “In no time at all, we had close to 50 boys again. ”

Clawson started a tradition that is upheld today, establishing Troop 111 as what its present scoutmaster, Laszlo Suto, calls “a camping troop. ”

“When I was scoutmaster, we averaged 80 days of camping year,” Clawson said. “That included winter, too. And we traveled a lot, with the boys raising the money themselves. We went everyplace — the Pacific Coast, the Tetons, the East Coast. I’d give anything to be doing it again today. ”

Suto still runs into former Boy Scouts who learned their camping skills under Clawson’s leadership.

“It’s amazing,” the current scoutmaster said. “”You’ll find a lot of guys who say, ‘I was in the troop in the ‘80s and I’m still camping with my own family because of it. ’

Suto got involved with Troop 111 as a way to go camping with his oldest son, Laszlo, who has moved through the ranks to earn the distinction of becoming an Eagle Scout. Holding that rank, he joins an elite group that includes presidents, Pulitzer Prize and Academy Award winners, religious leaders, titans of business and industry and more than 40 astronauts, including the first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong.

As of this year, 2 million American boys have earned scouting’s top rank, which represents only about 2 percent of total participation in the program. But when the Boy Scouts of America was founded in 1910 as part of the international scout movement, earning the Eagle pin was not the intended goal, nor is it today.

“The idea behind scouting is to take young people and develop future leaders,” Ron Clawson said.

The members of Troop 111 range from 11-18 years old, mirroring an age group that has moved up through the national program for nearly a century.

“They start out in the troop about this tall,” Suto said, holding his hand at about waist height. “They’re all squirrelly and running all over the place. They grow taller, but they grow in maturity, as well.

“They grow into young men. ”

“It teaches young people to grow up,” said Guy. “Part of the training you get as a scout is learning how to take care of yourself. I still use the Scout Motto — “Be Prepared” — in my own life. ”

The old Eagle Scout fingered the red, white and blue ribbon and silver pendant on his own Eagle pendant for a moment and looked up with a smile.

“I think it’s the reason I’m 94 and haven’t broken anything,” he said.

The Boy Scout program has “changed and improved” since Guy was first involved, he said. Suto noted that new merit badges are constantly being added to reflect changing times and interests.

“But the basics are still there,” Suto said. “When we go out into the community in uniform, people are still excited to see the scouts. They’re still excited about what the Boy Scouts stand for. ”

Editor’s note: The Daily Bee wishes to thank Larry Smith for his research and writing on the history of scouting in Bonner County, as well as local writer Marilyn Cork, whose in-depth research chronicled Boy Scout-related news coverage dating back to 1916.