Kecoughtan Emblems and History Site News

New Colonial Virginia Council FOS web page

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 22:47:00 +0000

Recently I discovered a neat new way to zoom images from a web page and thought I would try implementing it on my web site to see if it would be useful for displaying thumbnail images of patches that enlarge when clicked on. The best part is that you can have multiple images open at the same time for comparison.

The first page I tried this on details the special shoulder patches that have been issued by Colonial Virginia Council for their Friends of Scouting donors. I noticed that several of the patch designs were inspired by Norman Rockwell paintings and thought it would be cool to provide images of the patch and the corresponding painting to illustrate the source of the design.

Give it a try and let me know if you run into any issues. So far it works fine on my MacBook Pro and even on my iPhone.

Is it an issue, a variation, a fake, or a mistake?

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn) — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 08:15:00 +0000

There is an auction for a flap from Wahunsenakah Lodge on eBay right now that would puzzle most collectors not closely familiar with the patches from this Lodge. The patch up for bid is a lodge flap that was issued for the 1998 SR-7A conclave, and if you look in the Blue Book you'd see that that issue is classified as the S-8.

OAimages.com values the S-8 between $2.69 and $14.89 with an average value of $7.16. Even though the flap is ten years old it's considered a fairly common item and an easy find for your collection if you need it. So why is this auction showing a current high bid of over $100 with over 4 days left to go?

A comparison of the flap picture in the auction and the picture at oaimages.com or at kecoughtan.com would show one very small, but significant difference. The FDL (fleur d'lis) that is embroidered into the patch up for auction is black. The one in the picture from oaimages.com and kecoughtan.com is light green, so that the FDL is "ghosted" into the background:

I'm not sure how many of the S-8 flaps with black FDL's exist, nor how they came to be in circulation. More than a few OA flaps have been duplicated by Asian patchmakers and sold on eBay but this hardly appears to be the case here. The most obvious explanation would be a manufacturer's error.

I am fortunate to have one of these in my own Wahunsenakah collection, but it was sheer luck and not because I sought it. I always considered it just an error item.

Some would argue that this flap should be listed in the Blue Book as a variation, e.g. S-8b. I am not sure that I can agree with that since I don't know the history of the flap.

If the Lodge received some flaps with black FDL's and sent them back to the manufacturer as misprints and received credit or replacements with green FDL's they probably never intended the black FDL versions to reach the public. Similarly they may have been samples that the Lodge returned with a revision request to the manufacturer, and somehow the samples got out. Are they still an "official" Lodge 333 issue?

Regardless, it appears that for collectors who seek one of every Wahunsenakah Lodge flap this has already become a highly sought after patch. If you have information about the history or scarcity of it, please share it with me!

Bayport Scout Reservation 2008 pocket patch

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 20:01:00 +0000

Larry Johnson kindly sent me a picture of the 2008 pocket patch for Bayport Scout Reservation, the camp serving Colonial Virginia Council that replaced Camp Chickahominy. The new design is a cut edge issue with brown border and features a compass, the camp tower, and a sailboat.

There is also a blue-bordered participant variation of the pocket patch which I don't yet have a picture of. If you can provide one please let me know!

You can view all of the Bayport and Chickahominy patches in the Council Camps section of the Kecoughtan Emblems and History web site.

New Kiskiack Chapter pocket patch

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 03:21:00 +0000

Tim Ewing provided me with a picture of the newly issued Kiskiack Chapter pocket patch, first released in June of 2008 with 250 made. The design of the patch is virtually identical to the backpatch issued by the chapter when it belonged to Kecoughtan Lodge. Other than the lodge name change, the obvious size difference, and the loop, the only other design difference is the duck replacing the acorn at the bottom center.

1976, 1978 SE-1 Conclave Booklets posted

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn) — Fri, 23 May 2008 17:47:00 +0000

The booklets provided to Section conclave attendees provide not only helpful information about campsite locations, daily agendas, and meal menus, but many years later offer a unique insight into the history of the Section and the lodges that comprised it.

I've been fortunate to come across booklets from the 1976 SE-1 Conclave hosted by Guneukitschick Lodge 317 at Sinoquipe Scout Reservation near Fort Littleton, PA and the 1978 SE-1 Conclave hosted by Kecoughtan Lodge 463 at the former Camp Chickahominy, near Lightfoot, VA. Camp Chickahominy was also known as Peninsula Scout Reservation.

Both documents are quick downloads in PDF format, and feature painstakingly typewritten content that includes Section and Lodge histories as well as program-related documentation that often seems just as relevant thirty years later. I hope you will take the time to check them out!

1976 SE-1 Conclave Booklet
1978 SE-1 Conclave Booklet

First 2008 Wahunsenakah Activity patches

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn) — Thu, 22 May 2008 20:31:00 +0000

Larry Johnson kindly sent along excellent images of the Wahunsenakah Winter and Spring Ordeal activity patches to begin the new 2008 section of the Lodge 333 Activity patch page. The winter patch has a cheerful red border with white background reminiscent of snow and features a flying duck and the tower at Bayport Scout Reservation. The FDL is ghosted into the white background.

The spring ordeal patch brings back the cartoon-style yellow ducks with a winking duck in a rainstorm, two smaller ducks, and dragonflies with bright green border, FDL, and grass.

Colonial Virginia Council 2008 FOS CSP

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn) — Fri, 09 May 2008 18:57:00 +0000

The new CSP for Friends of Scouting donors to Colonial Virginia Council is now available.

This year's theme is Courteous, continuing the 12 points of the Scout Law theme the Council selected when they launched the program in 2003.

The patch requires a minimum donation of $75.00 to Colonial Virginia Council. Prior versions have included different borders for Eagle Scouts and United Way donors but this is reportedly the only version available. View and print the 2008 FOS flyer to make a donation.

Thanks to Larry Johnson for the excellent picture!

Wahunsenakah 2008 Conclave flap

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn) — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 17:43:00 +0000

Shenandoah Lodge 258 hosted the 2008 SR-7A Conclave on April 25-27 at Camp Shenandoah near Swoope, Virginia. The theme of the conclave this year was "Test the Bow of Brotherhood."

Wahunsenakah Lodge issued a colorful delegate flap that nicely mimics the colors and design of the official conclave pocket patch.

Thanks to Nathan Light of Nawakwa Lodge for the pocket flap picture and Mike Evans for the conclave patch picture!

Identifying a Kecoughtan first flap issue

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn) — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 03:01:00 +0000

According to the Blue Book Standard Order of the Arrow Insignia Catalog there are three varieties of the Kecoughtan Lodge S1 flap patch, first issued in 1953. All share the same design, have a cut (rather than rolled) edge, but have subtle differences which distinguish them.

The S1a variety is listed with the following comments in the Blue Book:
BLK BMT; FF; WHT back; coarse bkgd stitch; (1953) - which translates to "black base material, first flap, white back, coarse background stitch, first issued in 1953"

The S1b variety is listed with the following comments:
predominately BLK on back; BLK BMT; fine bkgd stitch; FF - which translates to "predominately black on back, black base material, fine background stitch, first flap"

The S1c variety is listed with a single comment:
GRY BMT - which translates to "Gray base material"

I am fortunate to have a 463s1a flap patch in my Kecoughtan Lodge patch collection, but would like to add an S1b and S1c to have all of the different varieties. Unfortunately this is not an inexpensive item to acquire. Two Kecoughtan S1 have recently been listed on eBay, with prices in the neighborhood of $500 each.

Last week a 463S1b was listed for auction with a photo of the front of the patch, and I found myself frustrated in my attempts to determine if the patch was indeed the second variety. It's hard to determine if the patch you are looking at has coarse or fine stitching, and even more difficult to determine the color of the base material without seeing the back of the patch. To really ensure accuracy you need to have samples of each variety in hand to identify and contrast the differences and compare each with the patch in question to make a proper identification.

Not having that luxury, I sought the opinion of fellow Scouter Larry Johnson who is also an avid collector of Kecoughtan Lodge emblems as a former member of that Lodge before it merged with Chanco 483 in January of 1996 to form Wahunsenakah Lodge 333. Since his collection contained examples of each 463s1 variety he quickly scanned both the front and the back of each and emailed me the pictures.

Meanwhile the seller had kindly responded to my request for a picture of the reverse of his patch. Using that and Larry's pictures I was able to quickly determine that the patch was actually an S1c based upon gray base material. By the time I sent my feedback to the seller he had already discontinued the auction due to the listing error.

Since Larry's pictures were invaluable to me in identifying the differences between the Kecoughtan 463 first flap varieties I decided to create a comparison picture to help others that might benefit from this resource. All credit goes to Larry for the excellent pictures and to the original contributors of the Blue Book who originally identified the variations, cataloged, and submitted them for publication

Yorktown Scout Sunday patches

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 07:22:00 +0000

On February 3rd this year the Chesapeake Bay District of Colonial Virginia Council sponsored their annual Scout Sunday with a 7 AM service at the Yorktown Monument, followed by breakfast at the local US Coast Guard Base.

Larry Johnson kindly provided me with images of the patches that have been issued for this event, and I've added them to the District Emblems section of the Colonial Virginia Council Emblems page. There is a fascinating consistency to the design and the variety of unique colors not often seen in Scout patches make these a nice group to collect.

More Duck Calls for the archive

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn) — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 07:13:00 +0000

Larry Johnson kindly scanned and sent me two editions of Duck Calls, the newsletter of Wahunsenakah Lodge 333. Both are more than a decade old. Check the Duck Calls archive page for PDF versions of the August, 1996 edition and the Feb-Mar, 1997 edition.

The addition of these brings to total number of Wahunsenakah Lodge Duck Calls newsletters in the online archive to an even 36. There are still a number of issues missing that I'd like to add. For example, I have no issue of Duck Calls from the year 1999. Please check to see if you have any that aren't already listed.

Reading old lodge newsletters can be informative about Lodge emblems. For example, in the August, 1996 edition of Duck Calls an item listed in the Trading Post Action article discloses that "All 1200 Conclave flaps were sold out by midday Saturday of the Spring Ordeal." The flap mentioned would be the 1996 Conclave flap, classified in the Blue Book as the 333 S-3.

SE-1 beaded emblem

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn) — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 15:24:00 +0000

Southeast Region Section 1 was created in 1973 by the National Office of the Order of the Arrow as part of their reorganization from twelve regions spanning the country to six. Under the twelve region scheme all of the Virginia OA lodges with Amangamek Wipit of Washington DC comprised Area III-C.

According to History to SE-8, published in 1984, the National and Regional OA planners originally wanted to split Area III-C lodges among at least two other sections, but after much pleading and discussion it was agreed to leave the Virginia lodges together, adding 3 Lodges from Maryland (Nentico 12, Guneukitschik 317, and Ahtuhquog 540) and one from Delaware( Nentego 20) to form SE-1, the largest section in the nation.

One of the most interesting SE-1 emblems is a unique item that is not an official issue at all, but rather a creation of Duane McSmith, who was an adult member of Kecoughtan Lodge 463. McSmith beaded a colorful and detailed picture that includes the totems of each SE-1 Lodge. The item has traded hands a couple of times within recent years by way of eBay, each time selling for more than $100.

The new owner of this unique item kindly provided me with an excellent picture of it so that McSmith's excellent handiwork and tribute to Section SE-1 could be appreciated by all. Can you identify all twelve of the lodge totems and find the two places where his first name is included in the design?

Wahunsenakah Winter Banquet patch

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn) — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 01:54:00 +0000

Wahunsenakah has reliably issued patches for their events since the inception of the new Lodge in January of 1996. Their last patch of 2007 was their 58th activity issue; this one for their Winter Banquet. Larry Johnson was kind to send me a picture which I've added to the Lodge 333 Activity Emblems page.

Adding thumbnail pics to emblem listings

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn) — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 10:47:00 +0000

I came across a very cool new bit of code that inspired me to try adding thumbnail pictures to the emblem listings. I've considered adding these small images to help make it easier to identify an issue, but planned to wait until the site was converted from static web pages to one powered by a database.

But after I saw the very cool effects and options presented by highslide I had to try it out to see what the addition would look like. You can check out this sample page to see the results. Let me know in the comments if you think it's a positive change!

Glenn

Elusive pictures arrive!

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn) — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 01:54:00 +0000

This past week has been exciting for new content at kecoughtan.com. I've been provided with photographs of items that I've needed for a long time. Larry Johnson sent me several very cool pictures, including one of the last coffee mug from Kecoughtan Lodge. It's not a design masterpiece, in fact it features a generic national OA logo with "Kecoughtan Lodge 463" imprinted underneath. But when it's the last photo you need to show every mug ever issued by the Lodge, it's welcomed as quite a prize!

I was also granted permission by auction hostess Melynda to share a picture of a 1992 NOAC leather round from Kecoughtan Lodge whose existence I was beginning to doubt since I had no details about it other than the fact it was reported to be a leather emblem. There's no sign of it on oaimages.com nor is it listed in the Blue Book. The only one I am aware of is now in the collection of Sam Fairchild who won the auction. This photo was the last one I needed to complete the Kecoughtan event emblems of the 1990's.

Now will someone please help me find out if there really was a leather patch for the 1976 Kecoughtan Lodge Spring Ordeal?

Down to nine Kecoughtan Lodge activity patch needs

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn) — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 08:37:00 +0000

I've been fortunate to pick up some Kecoughtan Lodge activity patch needs from recent auctions and after doing to checklist updating realized that I am down to just ten to complete this collection. I may even be down to just nine since I have not been able to confirm the existence of one of the patches (a leather patch reportedly issued in 1976 for the Spring ordeal).

Should you happen to have any of these available for trade or sale, please contact me. I've got a number of 463 activity patch duplicates as well in case you have holes to fill in your collection, and I'd be happy to send you a list of them.

Here's what I need (click on the decade links if you'd like to see pictures):

50's/60's
57 Fellowship (w/349)
66 Fall Fellowship - silkscreened neckerchief
67 Fall Fellowship
69 Winter Ordeal

70's
76 Spring Ordeal - leather (does this patch exist?)

80's
84 Fall Ordeal
86 Christmas Banquet
88 Summer Ordeal

90's
90 Spring Ordeal
95 Spring Ordeal

40th Anniversary Kecoughtan leather emblem

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn) — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 16:42:00 +0000

I was able to add a long-sought after item to my Kecoughtan Lodge collection recently. The 40th Anniversary Vigil Rededication leather emblem was issued to Vigil Honor members in 1991, and until I acquired this item through an ebay auction I had never even seen a photograph of it.

You can now find a picture of it on the web page listing Kecoughtan Lodge activity emblems from the 1990's. If you can provide any additional information like the number that were issued or who created the emblems, please send me an email.

Bayport 2007 patch gallery completed

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn) — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 01:14:00 +0000

Larry Johnson kindly sent along images of the Bayport Scout Reservation 2007 Staff and Rivah Base emblems to help complete the gallery of patches issued so far this year.

Four diamond-shaped patches were issued for the summer camp sessions, including a camper version with purple border, a black bordered collector's edition for the camp's inaugural year, a white bordered staff issue, and a blue bordered version for Rivah Base.

In addition, registrants received a round patch for early payment. Pictures of each of these emblems are available on the Colonial Virginia Camps page in the Bayport Scout Reservation section.

Converting image views to Lighbox

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn) — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 08:57:00 +0000

I've spent several hours recently going through the site and converting the emblem image views to use Lightbox, a web presentation effect that places a dark translucent screen over the web page the image is linked from and displays the image centered with a white background.

While the effect is visually appealing, there are a couple of other reasons that I chose to implement it on this site.

The prior image presentation method of using popup windows was a serious pain to manually code and many browsers and adware/spyware blockers are configured to block popup windows.

The lightbox effect includes navigation when an image is displayed. If you mouse over the image you will see "next" and "previous" links so that you can view other images in a series (you can also use the "n" and "p" keys on your keyboard to accomplish this).

For example, you can go to the Kecoughtan Chenilles page, click on the link to the C1 emblem, and then proceed to view all of the other Kecoughtan chenilles by just pressing the "n" key on your keyboard while the lightbox effect is active.

I held off on a mass conversion of the site to lightbox until I could verify that the effect works without issues when browsing images from an Apple iPhone. I was mighty relieved when I saw it works fine on the iPhone's Safari browser since I was not at all eager to go back to popups or research another display solution. When I get a chance I will take some photos of Kecoughtan patch images from this site displayed on the beautiful iPhone LCD screen and post them to this blog.

New Bayport Scout Reservation patches

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn) — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 18:45:00 +0000

Colonial Virginia Council showcased Bayport Scout Reservation, their new Scout camp in Middlesex County with a grand opening council-wide Camporee on May 18-20, 2007. The Camp replaces the 40 year old Camp Chickahominy, which was sold by the Council to US Homes Corporation in 2004 due to encroaching development around it. With an estimated attendance of 1,700 the Camporee is believed to be the highest attended event in the Council's history. Tim Ewing kindly sent along an image of the patch that was issued for the occasion which was appropriately themed "The Adventure Begins." The patch notably does not include any text reference to Bayport but the design features a tower emblazoned with icons of activities available at the new camp.

While the May Camporee was the first council activity at the new camp, Wahunsenakah Lodge has already held their 2006 Summer Ordeal and 2006 Fall Fellowship at Bayport, pitching in plenty of cheerful service to help get the new camp ready. Reports about both events are available in the online archives of the Lodge's newsletter, Duck Calls.

Larry Johnson kindly sent along pictures of several new patches for inclusion on the web site, including a commemorative shoulder patch issued by the council, as well as several variations of the diamond-shaped camp patch. You can find the camp patches included in the new Bayport section of the Colonial Virginia Council Camps page.

New community strip images

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn) — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 01:58:00 +0000

Before colorful Council Shoulder Patches (CSP's) made their way onto the scene in the early 1970's, Scouts wore Community and State strips on their left shoulder to identify the home of their troop. The strips were made of red twill with white lettering which is why they are also known as RWS patches. These were originally lettered in red on dark khaki decades ago, and can sometimes be found on old uniforms unearthed from the attic or basement.

Recently I was provided images of an old Newport News KRS and a Fort Monroe RWS to add to the Peninsula Council Community Strips page. If you have knowledge of other community strips from troops that were in Peninsula Council, please let me know so that I may add them to the list. If you can provide pictures that's even better!

2007 SR-7A Conclave images added

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn) — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 01:42:00 +0000

Way back in May Tim Ewing sent me a picture of the new Wahunsenakah Lodge flap issued for the 2007 SR-7A Conclave that was held April 27-29 at Pipsico Scout Reservation. Larry Johnson sent also me pictures of the Conclave patches, Vigil rededication tokens, and hatpin. For some reason I prepared the pictures and uploaded them to my server but completely forgot to link them from the appropriate pages. So today I added links on the SR-7A page to the 2007 Conclave items, and added the Conclave flap to the Wahunsenakah Lodge 333 page.

July 1993 Kryer added to online archive

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn) — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 07:33:00 +0000

Tim Ewing kindly supplied me with a scanned version of the July, 1993 edition of the Kecoughtan Kryer, which I have converted to PDF and added to the online archive.

This edition is particularly interesting as it reports on the final SE-8 conclave hosted by Tutelo Lodge in April of 1993 at Camp Powhatan before the section was dissolved as part of the national realignment of OA lodges into four regions. This newsletter also reports about the very first Conclave of Kecoughtan's new Section SR-7, hosted by Occonneechee Lodge 104 at Camp Durant near Raleigh, NC on the same weekend. Kecoughtan sent delegations to both events.

Note: According to the History of Itibapishe Iti Hollo #188, the 1993 Conclave at Camp Durant was in fact the last SE-7 event:

In April of 1993, Itibap attended the last SE7 Old North State Conclave hosted by Occoneechee Lodge 104. Following that weekend, the section was redrawn to include four new lodges from Virginia. The section is now named SR7 because of the new Southern Region.

This Kryer also includes two high-quality photo pages that include identifying captions for the Arrowmen that are featured in the pictures. One photo shows then Lodge Chief Dan Raymond serving breakfast to the two "tooth docs," Ron Godby and Barry Green, who purchased his services in an auction the night before.

The SE-8 conclave report mentions that attendees to the final section event were given an SE-8 chenille patch. I'm working to gather more information about this patch for a future article on this web site.

Black bordered Chanco flap mystery

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn) — Tue, 29 May 2007 15:22:00 +0000

My friend Tim Ewing has a black bordered flap from Chanco Lodge. This item is quite a mystery, because there is no listing in any emblem reference of Lodge 483 ever producing a flap with a black border. I've consulted DeWitt Holland, who knows more about Chanco issues than anyone else I know, to see if he might be aware of a prototype or sample Chanco flap, and his reply was: "I AM 100 PERCENT SURE CHANCO LODGE NEVER MADE ANY FLAP WITH A BLACK BORDER."

The patch appears to be the same design as a Chanco S1 flap, as there is no FDL and it has a cloth back. There are imperfections in the green background embroidery just to the left of the word "Lodge" and directly above the brave's head where the twill base material is evident. These areas are also evident on the back of the patch.

Michael McCaughan, an avid collector of Virginia OA items, speculates that the patch may have been rebordered as a sample by the manufacturer. That theory may explain why some trace of yellow is visible under the black threads. A permanent marker would probably bleed into nearby areas beyond the merrowed edge.

Do you have information or theories about this patch? If so please post your comments here.

Kryer archive reaches 101 editions

noreply@blogger.com (Glenn) — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 02:05:00 +0000

Former Kecoughtan Chief Morris Friedman kindly loaned me his collection of Kecoughtan Kryer newsletters to scan and post to the online archive of the newsletter of Lodge 463. With the addition of these editions the number of Kryers now available has reached 101.

There are still many years the Lodge was in existence for which I have no editions of the Kryer, or just one or two. Some of these are during the Lodge's final years of service before the merger with Chanco 483 in January of 1996. Please take a moment to dig through your Scout memorabilia and see if you might have an edition that's not in the archive to help complete this unique collection.