[Philmont] Black Bear Attack

My father, who was there in 1958, said that he saw a group with their food
on sticks up in the air about 18 inches. Seems that crew heard the food
should be elevated so they did just that.

Steve R.
731-R1
First Timer with my recently Eagled son.

----Original Message Follows----
From: Daniel Preston <prestonar@bellsouth.net>
Reply-To: philmont@troop47.com
To: "Philmont List Member" <Philmont@troop47.com>
Subject: [Philmont] Black Bear Attack
Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2007 11:47:18 -0500

In 1970 we were told of a bear attack that had occurred a couple of nights
before we arrived at a staff camp (can't remember which one). As John
LeBlanc has explained, the tents in those days were just staked-out canvas
tarps with a single pole and ties at the front. As told to us by the camp
staff involved, a bear stuck his head into one of the tents looking for food
and a scout took a flash picture of it. The disoriented and enraged bear
grabbed the scout in his sleeping bag and drug him out of the tent, mauling
him pretty badly. Several staffers heard the screams and arrived with
shovels in hand and hit the bear on the nose with a shovel, driving it away.
  The scout lived but took quite a few stitches to repair the damage (the
number of stitches increased as the summer progressed).

In those days, you saw a lot of bears at Philmont because the bear
procedures were not very good. The bears walked through camp at night,
sniffed and rooted around the tents, dug up buried food and grabbed bear
bags hanging from low branches. Getting out of your tent to pee in the
middle of the night could be terrifying, as my tentmate can attest - a black
bear walked right past him as was relieving himself. It is amazing that
there weren't more attacks.

Today's Philmont bear procedures are the best bear procedures practiced
anywhere. Make your scouts take them seriously. Because so few bears are
seen today, and teenagers generally consider themselves buttetproof, it is
easy for the crew to relax their concerns. It is the advisors
responsibility to make sure that every aspect of the bear procedures are
followed every night, no matter how tired everyone is.

Dan Preston
Louisville, KY
On Jun 19, 2007, at 7:05 PM, John LeBlanc wrote:

>Those are the ones we remember.
>-Nancy and Kevin
>***************************
> 
>Nancy and Kevin,
> 
>You did not mention the one that took up his post in the apple tree at
>CHQ.  Wasn't that about 2001 or so?
> 
>John LeBlanc
>
>Looking for a deal? Find great prices on flights and hotels with Yahoo!
>FareChase.
Dan Preston
Preston Associates Architects

-------------------------------------------------------
Scouting E-mail Discussion Lists @ usscouts.org
Listserv Commands at http://usscouts.org/lists/lc.asp
-------------------------------------------------------
Send listserv commands to: listserv@troop47.com
Send postings to: philmont@troop47.com
List FAQ found at: http://usscouts.org/lists/faq.asp
List Administrator: philmont_owner@troop47.com
-------------------------------------------------------
To Unsubscribe send text email to:

     To: listserv@troop47.com
     Subject: unsubscribe
     Body: unsubscribe philmont@troop47.com
-------------------------------------------------------

As you gather around this virtual campfire with fellow
Scouts and Scouters, do your best to be trustworthy,
loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient,
cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.
-------------------------------------------------------

_________________________________________________________________
Make every IM count. Download Messenger and join the i’m Initiative now.
It’s free. http://im.live.com/messenger/im/home/?source=TAGHM_June07

-------------------------------------------------------
Scouting E-mail Discussion Lists @ usscouts.org
Listserv Commands at http://usscouts.org/lists/lc.asp
-------------------------------------------------------
Send listserv commands to: listserv@troop47.com
Send postings to: philmont@troop47.com
List FAQ found at: http://usscouts.org/lists/faq.asp
List Administrator: philmont_owner@troop47.com
-------------------------------------------------------
To Unsubscribe send text email to:

     To: listserv@troop47.com
     Subject: unsubscribe
     Body: unsubscribe philmont@troop47.com
-------------------------------------------------------

As you gather around this virtual campfire with fellow
Scouts and Scouters, do your best to be trustworthy,
loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient,
cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.
-------------------------------------------------------

 
Received on Wed Jun 20 13:27:36 2007