On June 30, 1947, this photograph of dozens of Boy Scouts splashing in Chickamauga Creek appeared in the Chattanooga News-Free Press.
Assuming these boys were in their early- to mid-teens in 1947, they would be close to 90 today.
Boy Scout Road in the Hixson area has a connection to this photo. The road led to Camp Tsatanugi, a former Boy Scout retreat established here in the 1920s and used by scouts for more than 40 years.
According to scout archives based on old newspaper reports, the Boy Scouts had been active in the Chattanooga area since 1910, and in 1925 the local Boy Scout council purchased 92 acres near Cave Spring (and Chickamauga Creek) for the camp.
The caption with this photo, taken by Delmont Wilson of the News-Free Press, notes these scouts had just finished a long morning hike through nearby Pickett’s Gulch when they were allowed to take a swim.
“Swimming in the chilly waters of Chickamauga Creek is the most popular activity at scout camp,” the caption noted. “… The camp boasts canoes, row boats and Army surplus rubber landing craft.”
The image was part of an array of photos from the Boy Scout camp in the newspaper that day. Other images showed scout leaders canoeing and playing “Reveille” on a bugle.
ChattanoogaHistory.com
Launched by history enthusiast Sam Hall in 2014, ChattanoogaHistory.com is maintained to present historical images in the highest resolution available. If you have photo negatives, glass plate negatives or original nondigital prints taken in the Chattanooga area, contact Sam Hall for information on how they may qualify to be digitized and preserved at no charge.
“Camporees” attracting hundreds of Boy Scouts continued at Camp Tsatanugi into the 1960s and featured such activities as rope making, knot tying and learning to start fires with a flint, according to newspaper reports.
In 1968, the camp was purchased by the Highland Sportsman’s Club, which repurposed the property for hunting and fishing.
The image shown here is part of a collection of photographs archived at ChattanoogaHistory.com, a website devoted to vintage images of the Tennessee Valley and curated by history buff Sam Hall.
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Contact Mark Kennedy at mkennedy@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6645. Follow him on Twitter @TFPcolumnist.