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The Chester County Council is a Boy Scouts Of America service council that serves members of the Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, and Venturing programs in Chester County, Pennsylvania and Northeastern Cecil County, Maryland . It is one of the oldest councils in the nation, and is one of two single-county councils left in Pennsylvania, the other being the Bucks County Council (Philadelphia Area Council was a single-county council, covering Philadelphia County, but has since became part of the three-county Cradle Of Liberty Council ). HISTORY The Chester County Council was formed by a charter by the National BSA Council in 1919 , and was charged with overseeing the Scouts in Chester County under the leadership of Dr. Arthur A. Schuck , who later became the second Chief Scout Executive in the BSA after James E. West retired. In the early years, the council, forming in the wake of the armistace ending World War I , was able to consolidate the independent troops, despite most of the adults that were qualified were off in Europe. In the 1920s , the council, under the leadership of Charles Heistand, underwent a metamorphasis that resulted in the acquisition of a new Scout camp, and the formation of its own Order Of The Arrow lodge. Prior to the acquisition of the Reynolds Farm property on the Mason-Dixon Line near Rising Sun, Maryland and Oxford, Pennsylvania , Scouts attending summer camp were loaded up onto military trucks, and then shipped out to Camp Rothrock, the council's old summer camp property located near Carlisle, Pennsylvania . The council longed for a camp closer to home, and after being rejected by the former Philadelphia Area Council as being "too far," the council acquired the Reynolds Farm, then a Moonshine r haven, and the new camp, the Horseshoe Scout Reservation , opened its doors in 1928 . Just a year before, Mr. Heistand inquired about starting an Order of the Arrow lodge in the council, and contacted Dr. E. Urner Goodman , who was then serving as the Grand Lodge Chief (now the National Chief of the Order of the Arrow). After a failed attempt in trying to get the Philadelphia Council's OA Lodge, Unami Lodge 1, to install its chartered members, Dr. Goodman himself conducted the first induction ceremony, at Camp Hillsdale, near West Chester. Mr. Heistand, Joseph Brunton (who later became the National OA Chief), and several other members were inducted, and Octoraro Lodge #22 was born. Since the opening of the camp, and the founding of the OA lodge, the council has seen its fair share of growth throughout the county, eventually extending down into Cecil County, Maryland with the formation of several Boy Scout troops and Cub Scout packs as far south as Port Deposit, Maryland . Most of this achievement was under the direction of Lewis Lester, who was the longest serving Scout Executive of the council (in the 1940's and 1950's), and was influential in expanding the facilities at both Camps Horseshoe and Jubilee (later to become Camp John H. Ware, III). More recent additions to the council included the relocation of the council service center from downtown West Chester to an office building just off of the U.S. Highway 202 bypass in Westtown Township, Pennsylvania , and the opening of the new "Cub Town" facilities at Camp Ware in 2004. ORDER OF THE ARROW LODGE The council's Order of the Arrow lodge, Octoraro Lodge #22, was formed in 1927 under the leadership of Charles Heistand and Joseph Brinton, with its first members being inducted by Dr. E. Urner Goodman himself. Unlike most OA lodges in the area, which have been merged with other lodges as a result of council mergers (Unami Lodge One survived the Philadelphia/Valley Forge merger in 1996-97 when the members of Delmont Lodge #43, the Valley Forge lodge, simply folded and its members were transferred to the oldest chartered lodge in the OA), Octoraro #22 has survived and has celebrated it Diamond Jubilee in the 2001-2002 season. In 1946, in the spirit of the lodge's chartering by Dr. Goodman, members of the lodge traveled south to Norfolk, Virginia and inducted the first members of Blue Heron Lodge 343. Both Octoraro and Blue Heron share good relationships and invite members to each others fall fellowship weekends in September (Octoraro Lodge) and October (Blue Heron). Octoraro Lodge, which takes its name from the Octoraro Creek, a tributary of the Susquehanna River , uses the Canada Goose as its lodge "totem" or symbol. Early lodge patches and pocket flaps had white geese, with the "W.W.W." stitched in the center and bisected with a horizontally-facing arrow, but since 1971, all flaps used real-colored geese, and a horseshoe (representing the Horseshoe Scout Reservation) diagonally bisected by a red arrow. Prized flaps include the "Cut-Edge Blue," which is the very first pocket flaps issued by the lodge in the mid-1950s, and the gold-bordered 50th Anniversary flap, issued in 1976 for the lodge's golden anniversary. Both flaps fetch over $1,000 at auctions. NOTABLE PEOPLE OF THE COUNCIL Because of the council's rich history, most members have gone onto higher office at the Area, Regional, and National levels of the BSA. A list of those who served at the national level, or in public office, is listed below.
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