I'm putting this edition of the Casper Daily Tribune up for one reason.
The article on the Boy Scouts.
It notes its explosive growth at the time, and that there was a troop in Mills. There's no troop there today.
Indeed, church troops, which this article notes, have really dwindled, although they still exist. I know that in the 30s, St. Anthony's Catholic Church and St. Mark's Episcopal Church both had troops. They no longer do, although St. Mark's retains a cub scout troops.
According to the short search of it I did, today the local troops are:
1868 S Poplar St
Casper WY 82601
Boy Troop
Online Registration available for this unit.
Meets on Thursday nights at the church.
Girl Troop
108 E 7th St
Casper WY 82601
Boy Troop
Online Registration available for this unit.
Meets on Tuesday nights in the basement of the Elks Lodge.
701 S Wolcott St
Casper WY 82601
Boy Troop
Online Registration available for this unit.
Troop 1094 is dedicated to provide an educational program for boys and young adults to build character, to train in the responsibilities of participating citizenship, and to develop personal fitness. Our Troop camps during most months of the year, participates in several community service projects, and meets every Tuesday evening for regular meetings.
Girl Troop
520 Cy Ave
Casper WY 82601
Boy Troop
Online Registration available for this unit.
Great Troop! Great fun! Meets on Monday nights at the church.
A few things to note.
Two of these are associated with a church, that being the First Christian Church. Way back in antiquity when I was briefly a Boy Scout, even though I'm Catholic, that was the troop I was in. I think this was solely because somebody we knew was in it, and I was invited. In retrospect, I'm surprised that my parents didn't suggest I look at the St. Anthony's troops, which was still around at the time, although its members were no doubt mostly alumni of St. Anthony's school.
The George Vroman legion troop actually meets at College Heights Baptist Church, based on that address. So is it a church troop? That's not clear, but probably not. That Legion post meets at the National Guard armory, so it doesn't have its own meeting site, which might explain it partially.
Two of these troops are associated with service organizations, the Elks and Rotary. Service organizations are on the decline as well, although both of those seem to be doing well in Casper.
Most of these troops have a girls troops associated with them. The introduction of girls into what had been the Boys Scouts happened a few years back, and when it occurred it took all the LDS troops out of the organization. They'd had a big presence in it. The move also irritated the Girl Scouts, for obvious reasons.
I don't know if It's helped the Boy Scouts or not. They've certainly been in decline, but I suspect that the introduction of girls hasn't helped. Mostly what it probably has served to do is to create one more way in which it's impossible for boys to be with men in a formal way. Scouting was reeling under homosexual rape/seduction scandals at the time, although I'm sure that some would object to that characterization, even though there really is no other way to accurately describe it given as it was obviously male on male. I'm not claiming, of course, that male on underage female, and for that matter female on underage male, sexual abuse does not occur. Indeed, in the last year there's been a host of female on underage male abuse reported nationwide from public schools, school teachers in general being the number one sexual abusers of the underage. Something, suffice it to say, is really amiss in our society, as it is likely that all of this reflects a big increase in this conduct, not merely the discovery of it.
At any rate, the introduction of girls into the organization wouldn't seem to be directly related, but in a way it was, designed to show that Scouting was cleaning up its act and becoming inclusive. It could have addressed that in another way, as it really undercut the basic nature of the organization.
As noted, my connection with Scouting is thin. I was only briefly a Boy Scout. I shouldn't, therefore, really care too much about its decline, but still, it says something about the evolution of American society over the past century, and whatever it says, it isn't really a good thing that it's a shadow of its former self.
Scouting no doubt has a lot to compete with these days. However, the irony of that is that when it was first formed, it did to, and in some ways was formed expressly for those reasons.
