Scout Sunday – Feb 2nd-3rd

Scout Sunday is this weekend, February 2nd and 3rd. All scouts are required to attend one service at Crossroads, you should be receiving a phone call from your patrol leader letting you which service your patrol is assigned to attend and the times you are expected to be there. We will need to be there before and after service in order to man our table in the Atrium.

The Boy Scouts of America have designated the Sunday preceding February 8 as Scout Sunday and the following Saturday is designated as Scout Sabbath. (The United Methodist Church celebrates Scout Sunday on the second Sunday of February as not to conflict with Transfiguration Sunday.)

The day is meant to mark the founding of the Scouts in the United States. Observation varies by unit and locale. Scouts go to their places of worship in uniform and help with the service.

In the United States, Scouting has been used by churches, synagogues, and many other religious organizations as part of their youth ministries. Approximately 50 percent of all Scouting units are chartered to religious groups. These observances offer an opportunity for congregations to honor Scouts and Scouters, as well as to learn more themselves about the value of Scouting as a youth program.

January Camp Out Review

This past weekend was the first time we were able to use Adam’s Bus. Adam’s Bus is provided for use to Troop 322 by the Adam Wheeler Memorial Fund. The bus is inexpensively “rented” to the troop on a yearly basis to continually replenish and build up the fund. When the need to replace the bus arises in the future, the fund will once again be able to purchase a newer bus and continue providing transportation for the Troop. This bus is still being worked on and will receive a new paint job soon!

We visited Marengo Cave and took the Crystal Palace and Dripstone Trail tours along with taking a short cave crawl. Before entering the cave, the scouts were able to go through the cave simulator. The simulator turned out to be much harder than the actual cave crawl, some of the turns inside the simulator were pretty crazy! Marengo is packed full of cave formations and along with a great tour guide who was able to answer the scouts barrage of questions we had a great tour!

Make sure to check out the whole photo gallery from the camp out in the photos section of the site!

Upcoming Camp Out – Marengo Cave

In January we will be touring Marengo Cave, one of the longest caves in Indiana. The Cave was discovered in 1883 by two school children and has been open for tours since!
Marengo Cave was discovered on September 6th, 1883 by Orris and Blanche Heistand, brother and sister. Orris was 11 years old, his older sister Blanche was 15. Blanche worked as a cook at the local Marengo Academy and had heard some of the boys discussing a sinkhole they had found in the woods nearby. They suspected it might lead to a cave and were talking of returning with lanterns later.

Blanche decided to beat the boys to it. She ran home from school that day, enlisted her brother Orris, took two candles and set off into the woods. Lighting the candles the children crawled down a narrow passageway approximately 50 feet long and were the first humans known to set foot in Marengo Cave. Awed by what they had seen but quickly becoming afraid of the darkness they retreated back to the surface.

Three days later they notified the land owner, Samuel Stewart, whose land they had been trespassing on when they discovered the cave. The kids thought they had found diamonds because of the sparkling flowstone formations their candles revealed briefly while they were inside the cave. Believing the cave to possibly contain diamonds, Stewart quickly organized a group of men from the town and explored the cavern. Guided tours started soon afterwards for one quarter per person.

The Stewart family continued ownership of the cave until 1955 when Floyd Denton purchased the cave with great plans for development. Unfortunately, his plans were cut short when he died of a stroke in 1961. The present ownership purchased the cave in 1973 during the period when Interstate 64 was being constructed through southern Indiana. With better roads, an increasingly mobile population and aggressive promotion and quality improvements, the cave business began to grow again. The cave and surrounding park have grown nearly continuously the past 30 years.

A small crawlway known as “Blowing Bat Crawl” was finally broken through on June 14, 1992 leading to the discovery of the stream level of Marengo Cave. Approximately 3.5 miles were added to the cave’s length with this discovery. The largest room of any cave in Indiana was also discovered in the stream level. There is almost 5 miles of known passageway to date at Marengo Cave.

A few different movies have filmed in Marengo Cave including Madison (2001), starring Jim Caviesel and Jake Lloyd, and, most recently, Fire from Below (2008), starring Kevin Sorbo.

Click here to visit the Marengo Cave website

Spring Court of Honor

The Spring Court of Honor date has been changed to overcome schedule conflicts with other activities at Crossroads. The new date is, April 8, 2008. This change has been noted in the calendar.

If anyone would like to help with the planning and/or execution of this event please contact us ASAP. This is the perfect opportunity for those parents who can’t go camping with us to contribute to their son’s success.

Google Calendar

The troop now has a Google calendar that can be accessed via the calendar link on the right. We will be making our best effort to keep the information on it up to date.

First Regular Meeting of 2008

We will resume our weekly meetings Tuesday, Jan. 15,2008. 

Fall in at 7pm. Please remember Class A uniforms are required for all scouts. Also, be sure to bring your handbooks.

Merit Badge University February 16th, 2008

Native Trails District Merit Badge University
Saturday, February 16, 2008
University of Southern Indiana
Liberal Arts Center
Assemble from 7:15 to 7:45 a.m.
Sessions Begin at 8 a.m.
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