118 years ago Today in Scouting History

Headline of the Guthrie Daily Leader, 19 May 1900

After 216 days of seige of in the second Boer War (1899-1902) Mafeking, a small railroad town in South Africa, is relieved by British reinforcements from local militia surrounding a then unknown Colonel Robert Baden Powell.

The news traveled around the world and a British officer begins a path that would lead towards the creation of the scout movement.

Robert Baden Powell, 1896

A post card at this time would be addressed as Guthrie, Oklahoma, Indian Territory to insure delivery.

Guthrie – circa 1896

Guthrie would not achieve statehood until 1907 – the same year Robert Baden Powell conducts his first scout campout on Brownsea Island, UK on the first of August.