Saturday Jul 04
• MUSEUM OPEN
10:00am-3:00pm Open every Saturday from 10am to 3pm. Admission is always FREE!

Links Section

	SCOUT COLLECTORS BASE CAMP
	HIAWATHA SEAWAY COUNCIL, BSA
	NEW YORK OA TRADER
	BSA LEGAL

We are pleased to have you as a visitor to our website. This site is intended to inform everyone of where we are and what we have to offer. The William Hillcourt Scout Museum is a non-profit facility that operates on private donations and Fundraisers. It is Staffed and maintained by local volunteers. It has always been the intent of the volunteers to display as much of our Scouting's History as possible for everyone to enjoy.

The Museum is located on the property at Camp Woodland, Hiawatha-Seaway Council, BSA. From the New York State Thruway travel North on I81 to Exit 32 (Central Square), travel East on Route 49 approximatley 8 miles thru the Town of Constantia, turn left on Kibbie Lake Road, the Camp entrance is 2.5 miles on the left.

The Museum is Open on Saturday's from 9am to 3pm and by request or appointment by calling the Council Office. Admission is always, FREE!

For more info on the Engraved Brick Campaign, Contact the Hiawatha Seaway Council Office or stop at the Museum any Saturday and pick up an application. You can also copy the form by clicking on the Brick Form link in the upper left corner of this page. Bricks will be placed in the sidewalk and around the flag pole leading into the Museum. Proceeds will be used for part of the Museum landscaping project and Camp improvements. This is an excellent way to recognize that special Scouter or Remember one that has gone home. Engraved Bricks are $50 Each, 3 Lines, 14 Letters per line....Don't delay, put your brick order in Today!

John Binkowski and Bill Young looking at the newly installed bricks!

2009 The TOR is in the Books... We All had an excellent time!!! Trading was at a premium...many new and old items we exchanged! The Musuem Committee is excited to express it's gratitude to All of the traders and collectors that attended our event. We all had FUN! The Steve Smith Collection was SOLD at the end of the TOR. We are very pleased in helping a local collector in liquidating a serious collection of over 4,000 CSP's and Flap'S.

The Limited Edition Silver Mylar Lighthouse set it still available....$75 per numbereed and framed set...Contact the Willaim Hillcourt Museum at the address above for further information.

Museum Committee planning the Central New York TOR

MUSEUM Issues NEW Lighthouses of Lake Ontario CSP SET

The Museum is proud to announce the release of the first 3 of a series of 6 Lighthouses of Lake Ontario CSP set. Each set depicts a major Lighthouse from the East shore of Lake Ontario. On sale now at the Museum or by request from the museum. Each set of 3 cost $18 plus $2 for shipping (up to 4 sets). Only 250 sets available!!! Stop by the Museum any Saturday and pick yours up today or write us at Camp Woodland, Hillcourt Museum, 491 Kibbie Lake Road, Constantia, NY 13044.

Oswego Lighthouse

Stony Point Lighthouse

Tibbets Point Lighthouse

The Second set of 3 Lighthouse CSP's is now avalible, please check out the pictures below. Each set of 3 is $18 plus $2 for shipping, if you want both sets send $36 plus $2 for shipping and we will ship them right out!

Selkirk Lighthouse

Sodus Outer Lighthouse

Sunken Rock Lighthouse

IN THE BEGINNING.... William "Green Bar Bill" Hillcourt was born Vilhelm Bjerregaard Jenson in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1900. His introduction Boy Scouting came in January 1911, at the age of 11, after his parents gave him B-P's newly translated Scouting For Boys as a Christmas gift. Bill went on to become the Danish equivalent of an Eagle Scout. His Troop sent him to the first World Jamboree in London, in 1920, and a habit started that would move him into the international Scouting spotlight for the rest of his life.

COMING TO AMERICA.... It was 1926 and Bill Hillcourt was a "Cub Reporter" for his Copenhagen newspaper. Bill talked his Editor into sending him to the U.S. for its first National Jamboree -- after all, Bill was a Journalist who was also one of Lord Baden-Powell's Scouts. The paper ought not be "scooped" by someone else by being absent from such an austere event where England's great Lord Baden-Powell would speak to the very first gathering of American Boy Scouts! The convinced Editor sent his Journalist to the U.S. to cover BSA's first Jamboree for the paper! Bill didn't return to Denmark. He broke his leg at the Jamboree and while awaiting passage home, visited Scout Executive Dr. James E. West at the BSA office on Times Square in New York City. Awaiting the building's elevator with his leg in a walking cast, the doors opened; Dr. West stepped out and Bill fell forward trying to step in -- right into Dr. West's arms! Two handicapped Scouters met abruptly.

What they had in common caused Dr. West to invite Bill Hillcourt to his office. Once there, Dr. West learned all about Bill Hillcourt, why he was in the U.S. for a BSA Jamboree, and visiting BSA & West.

THE START OF A NEW CAREER.... Bill's enthusiasm about Scouting and being a journalist led West to offer Bill his first job in the Supply Service of the new, expanding BSA Program. Later, Bill challenged West's implementation of the scouting program -- that BSA didn't follow B-P's Patrol Method correctly. West challenged Bill to write a replacement for BSA's 1910 Official Handbook, that had been published as an Americanized version of B-P's Scouting for Boys.

Bill had already written his first book three years earlier at 23: a tale of Scout camping, based upon his own Patrol's experiences. But this book had to be written in English; boys not only had to read it, but enjoy it, and follow B-P's Methods. Bill always enjoyed telling his story of how a Dane with poor English came to learn our language well enough to write a best-selling book for American boys. To improve his English, particularly when it was already corrupted with "Americanisms", Bill used to go to Times Square to watch movies. He spent two months on BSA's payroll attending American movies He'd watch a morning matinee; then a different early-afternoon matinee; then yet another late-afternoon matinee. This is the way Bill learned the collegial American language of English. His first Boy Scout Handbook was a smashing, run-away, best-seller success; it was written as Boys talked. Boys understood it; they liked it; and they followed it. Bill's new BSA career was off to a running start. Bill Hillcourt went on to write a Patrol Leader Handbook, a Scoutmaster's Handbook, and the Field Book; then updated them from 1929 until he retired. In 1932, while writing the many handbooks, Bill started to enliven the pages of Boys' Life with his famed Scout craft features, leading generations of boys into the outdoors. For four decades until he retired, Bill wrote his feature column under his pseudonym of "Green Bar Bill", with a logo of " Bill became involved in Wood Badge in 1936 when John Skinner Wilson, Camp Chief of Gilwell, came to introduce Wood Badge to the United States. After adapting the training to the BSA program, Bill served as Scoutmaster of the first two courses (and many others thereafter). You'll want to hear more about this.

EPILOG... William "Green Bar Bill" Hillcourt was a personal friend of B-P. When Bill died at 92 on November 9, 1992, in Stockholm, Sweden, he still had several of B-P's original, signed sketches hanging unadorned on his apartment walls in Manlius, NY. Two copies of B-P's original serialized newspaper articles that became B-P's Scouting for Boys sat idly yellowing on a bookcase shelf beside several autographed first-edition copies of B-P's Scouting for Boys. In his lifetime, William "Green Bar Bill" Hillcourt became Scoutmaster to the world; revered by BSA Scouters everywhere as the "B-P" of American Scouting -- equally as important as William Dickson Boyce, Ernest Thompson Seton, Daniel Carter Beard, and Dr. James E. West as BSA founders!

REGIONAL NOTE... After the BSA closed Schiff Scout Reservation, Bill moved to live with his close friend Carson Buck in Manlius, New York which is in the Hiawatha Seaway Council Area. He became a close friend to many of the Scouts and Scouters. None of us will ever forget his "Danish lunches", his wood badge log, painting the totem poles in his backyard followed by a dip in the pool, or his "take two" patch bowl. Each year we used to celebrate his birthday with a dinner cruise on pristine Skaneateles Lake.

He was always ready to meet scouts at a Camporee, sign handbooks (in reality he would sign anything), or lead his favorite song "I love bananas, coconuts, and grapes".

We all miss the greatest of all American Scouts.

The Museum display’s many original items from the William Hillcourt Collection. When you are in the Central New York area, I encourage you to take the time to stop at Camp Woodland and visit The William Hillcourt Museum and Carson Buck Memorial Library.

Hillcourt Display

Museum Patch

Available for $3 at the Museum Trading Post!!!

Topics to be continued from the prior history: - Sabattis - Camp Woodland - National and World Jamborees - Philmont Treks - Updated list of Council Executives - Adventurelands - Council office location - OA - Woodbadge

Camp Woodland 1940

Topics not included previously: - A history of the former Seaway Valley Council and its predecessors. - Boy Power Dinner - Camp Portaferry - Scotland trips - History of the council organization, such as a history of how and when the districts were formed and reformed. - The Scout Museum itself - Learning for Life - Exploring - Venturing - Scoutreach

If you are interested in writing an article and helping to preserve the history of the council, just contact John Binkowski at 487-2248 or jbinkowski@twcny.rr.com.

AOLA Lodge 410 Collection