Boy Scout Troop 1933 celebrates 50 years

Kalispell’s Boy Scout Troop 1933 is celebrating its 50th anniversary at Grizzly Base Camp in Bigfork Sunday with an event featuring a barbecue dinner, games, awards, cake, speakers and, of course, a campfire.

Sponsored by the Kalispell Rotary Club, Troop 1933 was chartered in 1972 and is currently one of the oldest troops in the state, but the history of Boy Scouts in Kalispell goes back much further.

A search of the Daily Inter Lake archives shows the first mention of Boy Scouts in an article dated Jan. 6, 1911 which states the newly formed organization was planning to form a troop in Kalispell.

The first article covering the group’s activities was published Aug. 18 of the same year.

The article describes a week-long trip by 14 scouts to Swan Lake. According to the article, the trip included fishing, “tramping in the woods,” boating, swimming and even a swimming contest on the final day of the excursion.

One hundred and eleven years later, Troop 1933 carries on the traditions started by that first Kalispell troop.

“I love history in general, so I have enjoyed learning more about what the troop was and looking through the old records,” Troop 1933’s Atreyu Oxford, 14, said. “It has been very interesting, especially learning about those who have come before us and knowing there will be more who come after us.”

For Troop Librarian, Atreyu’s younger brother Arrol, 12, the appreciation of the troop’s history has been more visual.

“It's been interesting to see all of the things that have changed with Scouts over the years and looking at all of the old pictures,” Arrol said.

With 15 years of combined scouting experience between them, the brothers are part of the leadership of a troop that has recently been growing at an exceptional rate. A group that had only 12 members in December, Troop 1933 now boasts 27 scouts, with more joining all the time.

“We have grown exponentially in the last few months. So, where we have been operating with two patrols, we will soon be splitting into four. We are super excited that the troop keeps growing and is doing amazing things,” Northwest District Committee Vice Chair Barbara Oxford said. “We have a lot of people moving into the area, but our troop has also been making a large effort over the past few years to rebuild and provide a better program for our scouts. We want to be able to get out into the community and do more.”

AFTER BREAKS during World War II and Vietnam, the current Kalispell Boy Scout charter came about in 1972. With as many as 50 members or more at times over the years, more than a thousand former members continue to make their impact on the Flathead and beyond.

“We have sheriffs that used to be with this troop, we have doctors and even the president of Valley Bank. We definitely have some big names in the area that used to be a part of our troop and those people are doing some amazing things,” Barbara Oxford said.

In addition, she mentioned the numerous projects undertaken by the scouts of Troop 1933 over the past five decades.

“We have kids that have built handicap accessible tent pads at Lions Camp. We had a kid who recently rehabbed all of the cabins at the 4-H Camp. We had a youth who spent a lot of time putting together stop-the-bleed kits for all of the rural schools and then got the fire department to help train all the teachers how to use them,” she said. “Those are just some of the more recent projects we have seen completed. I don’t think there is a single part of this valley that hasn’t been touched by the troop.”

With a variety of activities available to scouts, Barbara Oxford says the organization has something for every kid.

“One of the beautiful things about scouting is that there are 140 different badges,” she said. “No matter what your passion is, there is a place for you in scouting.”