December 2013 Volume 36, Number 6 PAID NM Permit 8 ® CIMARRON T h e m a g a z i N e o f T h e P h i l m o nt S Ta f f a ss o c i aT i o N® U.S. POSTAGE Non-Profit Organization high countrY check us out! www.philstaff.com ® Mission unites (PSA) Association Staff Philmont The and present— staff—past Philmont the adventure, purpose of serving the the for Ranch Scout Philmont of experience and heritage Boy Scouts of America. and the 17 DEER RUN ROAD CIMARRON NM 87714 Our Mission HigH Country®—Volume 36, Number 6 PhilmoNT STaff aSSociaTioN® December 2013 boarD of DirecTorS eD PeaSe, eDiTor mark Dierker, layouT eDiTor Jim lyNch, PreSiDeNT ScoTT ToNey, Vice PreSiDeNT, memberShiP randy SaunderS, associaTe eDiTor Tim roSSeiSeN, Vice PreSiDeNT, SerVice DaVe kenneke, STaff contribuTor JohN murPhy, Vice PreSiDeNT, DeVeloPmeNT keViN “leVi” ThomaS, carTooNist ray czech, SecreTary Jack PerSoN, TreaSurer in this issue contribuTiNg eDiTorS roberT birkby DaViD caffey NaTioNal DirecTorS columns bill cass gregory hobbS ray baTchelor WarreN SmiTh mark STinnett bill caSS mary STueVer STePheN zimmer keN DaViS 4 from the prez mark griffiN HigH Country® iS The official PublicaTioN of The lee huckSTeP 5 from th editor Philmont STaff associaTioN® and iS PubliSheD Six STeVe rick 12 ranch roundup TimeS Per year aS a beNefiT To its memberS. STeVeN zimmer 18 short stuff © 2012, The Philmont STaff associaTioN, iNc. regioNal DirecTorS all rights reSerVeD. No coPyrighT claimeD for NorTheaST 38 trail talk PreViouSly coPyrighTeD or Public maTerial. aDam fromm PermissioN granteD for NoN-commercial rePrintiNg kaThleeN SeiTz or reDistribuTioN WiTh ProPer attribuTioN. articles ceNTral HigH Country®, Philmont STaff associaTioN®, caTheriNe hubbarD 6 psa news - regional reunions PSa® and The official PSa logo® chriS maNheim are all registereD TraDemarkS of: 8 psa news - waite and genevieve SouTherN 10 psa news - usafa rangers The Philmont STaff associaTioN, iNc. bryaN DelaNey 17 Deer ruN roaD mark leiNmiller 20 psr and the chase ranch cimarroN, NeW mexico 87714 575-376-1138 WeSTerN 25 ptc news amy boyle for memberShiP and SubScriptioN iNformaTioN, michael WaggoNer 26 philmont history - porcupine ViSiT our WebSiTe aT: bill mckoWN, raNch commiTTee rePreSeNTaTiVe On the cover: Philmont signs an 29 philmont history - loomis WWW.PHILSTAFF.COM eD PeaSe, immeDiaTe PaST PreSiDeNT agreement to manage the historic mark aNDerSoN, PhilmoNT STaff aDViSor 34 philmont history - shutt Chase Ranch, providing educa- ex officio memberS tional programing for Scouts and other HigH Country® WelcomeS arTicleS, PhoToS and emery corley, legal aDViSor letterS for consiDeraTioN for fuTure issueS. DouglaS faSchiNg, TechNology maNager the general public, and preserving SubmissioN DoeS NoT guarantee PublicaTioN. this historic place for future genera- 10 bulletin board The eDiTorS and PubliSher reSerVe The righT To . SelecT and eDiT maTerialS To be PubliSheD. tions. See story on page 20 randy SaunderS, execuTiVe DirecTor Photo by Anna Fuchs Send Submissions, letterS or comments To Julia mcculloch, office maNager “ HigH Country” aT The aboVe address or e-mail: [email protected] PSA® FELLOWS BOB HArvEy FELLOW if you WoulD like To receiVe HigH Country® PAUL And MARY JAnE HARVEY iN elecTroNic raTher ThaN PaPer formaT, PleaSe GLEnn A. FOWLEr FELLOW contacT The PSa office aT [email protected] BRUCE BARnES GEOrGE A. BuLLOck FELLOW MeMbers only ACCess ® oPiNions exPresseD iN HigH Country are ThoSe of WILLIAM d. BRYCE Contributing Writers The WriTerS and, uNless oTherWiSe staTeD, bill caSS emery corley NeD golD colleeN (cole- JOE DAviS FELLOW user nAMe: beAubien Do NoT Necessarily reflecT The Views of The BILL CASS maN) leSTer DaViD o’Neill mark STiNNeTT mike Philmont STaff associaTioN®, Philmont JOHn A. MAxBAuEr, Jr. FELLOW homaS coTT oNey ark ille couT aNch or The oy couts of merica PAssWord: lowerbonito T S T m W S r , b S a . AnOnYMOUS Volume 36, number 6— DeCember 2013 Volume 36, number 6— DeCember 2013 3 from the president Finally, I’d like to thank three people standard to follow—and I could always that have made this six years a great count on him for wise counsel and a adventure for me personally. First, my sounding board. These three folks have Well, after six years of columns, this is cations, annual reports, elections and wife Jane, and her willingness to fit our meant so much to me that my thanks my last one. In the Air Force we had minutes were all handled superbly by life around PSA schedules along with are a small tribute for their dedication a tradition of writing an end of tour Ray and his team! Thanks Amigos. her unfailing support for everything and friendship. report—where you recognized things I always think of the Service VPs the PSA presidency required. Sec- Well, it has been a great tour. as they were for your replacement. In as the “two amigos.” Fred Cribbett ond, thanks to my Executive Director Thanks for all of your support and I place of that I’d like to recognize a few and Tim Rosseisen have juggled many Randy--he anticipates my every idea know that John Murphy will enjoy the folks that made the last six years so projects and tasks to provide great op- and request for the PSA. I have truly same support that I did and the associa- successful for me in my role as Presi- portunities to our members. Reunions, enjoyed working with you the past six tion will continue to grow and prosper. dent. treks, scholarships, service projects, years! And finally, thanks to Ed Pease, First, the VPs for Development— Phil-Amigos—you name it—the service my mentor and friend. He set a high -Jim Lynch, President Denny DuBois, and John Murphy— committee produced and delivered it. you two made it look easy. In the most Thanks for all your hard work. challenging economic period of the Scott Toney and his staff on the last hundred years, the two of you membership committee kept us alive delivered the funds we needed to keep and growing—especially this year. the association alive and offering new Under his leadership, Scott and team from the editor services. Your record speaks for itself. brought us to over 2800 members this Speaking of money, in a time when summer. Thanks for your vision and Thanks to the many members of the comfortable with a digital magazine, financial empires were wracked with your friendship—I have enjoyed get- PSA who responded to our reader- and based on that supposition, present- ethical issues and malfeasance, the ting to spend time with you over the ship survey included in this year’s ed a plan to the Board of Directors last Treasurer and his finance and invest- last six years. election mailing. Nearly 600 members summer on how to make a conversion ment committee stood like Horatius I’d also like to thank Ranch man- responded, a response rate significantly to “total electronic.” When the survey against that tide. IRS filings, accounts, agement. We talk a lot about being higher than in years past, and many results came back nearly identical to budgets, investments, all well executed partners with Philmont Management, took the time to write comments and those of three years ago, the committee the last six years because of Jack Person and in the past 6 years I can say the suggestions in addition to answering promptly withdrew its recommenda- and his merry band of volunteers management has bent over backwards the questions posed. We have already tion, responding to our readers’ desire including Doug Wahl—our investment for us. Keith Gallaway, John Clark, and started implementing some of our to keep the print edition with an elec- skipper. A flawless record of pecuni- Mark Anderson have all gone out of readers’ suggestions, including mov- tronic option for those who chose that ary mastery that upholds the highest their way to help us any way they can. I ing a few of the more time-sensitive format instead. traditions of non-profits and the PSA. have always felt they had an open door columns to the website. Look for other tweaks to the maga- Thanks Jack for your help and your and more importantly an open mind Most significant were those survey zine in the months ahead – and don’t friendship. to our ideas and initiatives. Without questions which dealt with the associa- feel like you have to wait for the next Our secretary Ray Czech has done a a cooperative management, the PSA tion’s continuing debate about “print survey to continue sharing ideas and masterful job. He and his administra- would be severely limited in what we vs. electronic” as the proper format for recommendations with the Publications tion committee also turned in world- could offer our members. Again thanks High Country. The Publications Com- Committee and the PSA Board of Direc- class performances—running largely to all the Philmont team that makes our mittee had expected to see an increase tors. “the back of house” operations of the partnership the shining success it has in the number of our readers who felt Happy Holidays to you and yours. association. Our web presence, publi- become. Volume 36, number 6— DeCember 2013 Volume 36, number 6— DeCember 2013 4 from the prez from the editor 5 psa® news northeast regional reunion The weatherman was wrong. Instead of the chilly, dreary forecast, PSA members regional reunions attending the Northeast Regional Reunion enjoyed a beautiful fall day at Camp Wheeler, Allamuchy Scout Reservation in Stanhope NJ. PSA member Dave Setzer and the Patriots’ Path Council have set the gold standard for regional reunions.