PEORIA MAGAZINE July 2023

S P O T L I G H T

W.D. BOYCE COUNCIL OF BOY SCOUTS TURNS 50 Scouting in central Illinois is way more than square knots and campfires

BY SCOTT FISHEL PHOTOS BY RON JOHNSON

W illiam Dickson Boyce is rarely included in lists of great leaders from cen tral Illinois. This appar ent oversight doesn’t take into consid eration Boyce’s role in the founding of the Boy Scouts of America. “The Founder” lived and is buried in Ottawa, Illinois, on the northern edge of the Scout council that has honored his name since 1973. The W. D. Boyce Council turns 50 this year. A successful Chicago newspaper publisher, Boyce incorporated the Boy Scouts of America in 1910 after a chance encounter with a Scout on a foggy street in London. Impressed by the boy’s willingness to help without reward, Boyce sought out Lord Robert Baden Powell, who had launched Scouting in England in 1908. Boyce brought Baden Powell’s ideas home and planted the seeds of a new youth organization.

Cornbelt Council, based in Bloomington, and the Creve Coeur Council, based in Peoria. Thousands of young people formed Cub Scout packs and Boy Scout troops, learned to tie knots and safely handle a knife, slept under the stars and cooked over an open fire. All the while they developed leadership skills, gained independence and learned to appreciate the outdoors. A national trend toward consolidation led the three councils to combine their administration, finances and program support in 1973. Today, the W. D. Boyce Council en compasses all or part of 14 counties, with service centers in Peoria and Blooming ton. Ingersoll Scout Reservation (ISR), a 646-acre property along Cedar Creek west of London Mills, serves as the council’s summer camp. An average of 2,000 Scouts BSA members (ages 11-17) attend resident camp there in June and July. Hundreds of Cub Scouts (grades

The rest, as they say, is history.

TAKING ROOT Scouting flourished in central Illinois, eventually coalescing in the Starved Rock Council, based in Ottawa, the

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