From: Chromedia (chromeda@rochester.rr.com)
Date: Sun Jul 21 2002 - 14:03:55 CDT
I can shed a little light on the subject. Several years ago, one of my
co-advisors was a man who was at Philmont in 1965 or 66 as a youth. He had
been elected crew "scribe" or historian then, and brought with him on our
'96 trip a number of photos and his diary form '65 - the uniform was the
green Explorer shirt, blue jeans, and the white straw "cowboy" hat.
He said that Philmont was setup very different then. There was no base camp
that is CHQ next to the highway. The main camps were Ponil, Cito, and Abreu.
When they arrived, the went to Cito for a few days, stayed in tents and ate
in the dining hall - the building is still there. At some point they went
out on trial for a few days, choosing a route or trek after they had arrived
at Philmont. They took burrows, cooked fresh food - potatoes, bacon,
stew - over a fire; and stayed in tents that were made in two parts. Two
scouts would carry each one half. When trail camp was set up, they would tie
the two halves together to form their tent.
On our '96 trek we were at Cito for a two day layover. He and I walked
around the camp as he described what it was like then. We walked up to the
campfire circle, and naturally I asked him about the totem poles. First he
indicated that the campfire circle was the place for the camp's "campfires."
It was used in the same way any camp's firecircle is used today - for
openings and closings and entertainment. He said that each summer a large
tree or two would be cut down by the staff, and the bark would be removed.
Each crew - or group really as there were more than 12 people in a group -
would be given a small section to carve and paint its totem on if they
wished. It wasn't a required thing and many groups did not participate. The
paint came from the handicraft lodge which is a building next to the dining
hall. The crew totem usually had something to do with an event on its trail
trip. Over the summer, the pole would become full with totems, and when
done, would be erected at the circle. As the years went on, new totem poles
would be put up and older ones would be taken down because they would rot,
or blow down, or more room was needed.
I don't know if every fact is absolutely accurate; and I don't know when
they stopped carving the totem - I think it was in the mid '70's. But
having heard similar narratives over the years, they all seem to be about
the same. Philmont was a very different place then - operated more closely
as to how camps are run today.
Jim Whitcomb
Otetiana Council
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Lentz" <blentz@prodigy.net>
To: "Multiple recipients of list philmont" <philmont@troop47.com>
Sent: Sunday, July 21, 2002 1:40 PM
Subject: [Philmont]: Totems at Cimarroncito
> I was wondering if any of the "old-timers" on this list knew anything
about
> the totem poles around the campfire ring at Cimarroncito. It looked like
> to me that they were from the '50's and maybe '60's. Several of us
> wondered if they would have been carved by contingents while at the ranch,
> or brought from home. There seems to be a lot of history here. Were
there
> any requirements as to who could bring a carving? presentation
ceremonies?
>
> We also wondered why Philmont doesn't appear to be actively preserving
> them. Some of us wondered if it was a "political correctness" thing.
>
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