Cowboy Hats Oklahoma is Home to & Hard Hats First Boy Scout Troop 4 Be an Angel 2 3 this Christmas Pawhuska is Home to Nation’s First Boy Scout Troop....Scout’s Honor! Oklahoma was a brand new state when Rev. and earned English badges,” she says, adding “it John F. Mitchell arrived on the plains of Osage was designated Troop #1.” County. What he found in Pawhuska were people “In fact, Ed Tinker who owned the local anxious to develop the area and to welcome the newspaper, bought the uniforms and paid for world. But for all that enthusiasm, there was little them to be shipped here from England. His son interest being paid to the area’s young people. Alex was one of the troop members.” Rev. Mitchell knew just what to do about Taylor says the new Scouts did many that. And what he did made history. activities Scouts still enjoy today. “They went on MitchellMitchell was on assignment fromfrom the ChurchChurch camping trips, learned wood crafts, survivalsurvival tech- of EnglandEngland to Pawhuska’sPawhuska’s St.St. Thomas EpiscopalEpiscopal niques, and howhow to use many of the resourcesresources Church.Church. The BritishBritish minister was an associ- that could be found out in the wild, while ate of LordLord RobertRobert Baden-Powell,Baden-Powell, still respectingrespecting and preservingpreserving those who founded the BoyBoy Scouts of resources,”resources,” shes says. England,England, and he had workedworked “But“But they did some things with Scouting while there.there. HeHe differentlydifferently too.too. ForFor exam- felt the beautiful, yetyet still ple, they sang ‘God‘God SaveSave untamed areaarea of northernnorthern the Queen,’”Queen,’” she laughs. OklahomaOklahoma offeredoffered ideal InformationInformation avail-avail- opportunitiesopportunities to interestinterest able in the BoyBoy Scout youngyoung boys,boys, while teach- portionportion of the mu- ing them the philoso- seum tells about the phies of Scouting. youngyoung trooptroop making SoSo in 1909 Mitch-Mitch- a cross-countrycross-country trip to ell founded the fi rst BoyBoy BartlesvilleBartlesville in March,March, Scout trooptroop in America. 1910. SomeSome boysboys roderode NineteenNineteen PawhuskaPawhuska boysboys their horses, some roderode in betweenbetween the ages of 11 and a horse-drawn wagon, and 17 joined the newnew troop.troop. some walked. “It“It was the fi rst trooptroop OnceOnce there,there, they werewere IN America, not OF America,” reportedlyreportedly met byby the BartlesvilleBartlesville points out JudyJudy Taylor,Taylor, presidentpresident band and escortedescorted into towntown wherewhere of the OsageOsage County HistoricalHistorical Museum.Museum. they camped at a parkpark for the duration of “There“There can be some confusion about that.” The their stay.stay. Boy Scouts of America were founded in 1910, and The next morning there was a big parade received a Congressional Charter in 1916. downtown and that afternoon the Pawhuska Boy Taylor goes on to explain the troop Mitchell Scout troop helped organize a troop in Bartles- formed was organized under the charter of the ville. On Sunday morning the troop attended Boy Scouts of England. church and then began the trek back to Pawhus- “Mitchell was the troop leader and the mem- bers wore English uniforms, used English manuals Continued on Page 3. Cowboy Hats & Hard Hats Different Day, Same Message by Jack Clinkscale, General Manager By the time you read this, the 68th significant rate increase in 2008 and subse- the region. annual meeting of your cooperative will be quent years. We were indeed able to avoid a It may seem I dwell too much on this over. This was our first annual meeting in rate increase in 2007 despite an increase in negative message, but I want every member the beautiful new Cleveland Event Center wholesale power cost from KAMO in April of to know what is coming. No member of and I hope everyone enjoyed the refresh- this year. In April 2008, IEC will experience IEC will have to play the Russian roulette ments, additional seating and air condition- another significant increase from KAMO game we play at the gas pump, never know- ing (or heating, as the case may be). Moving which we will not be able to absorb. We will ing what the cost will be from day to day. the annual meeting to a new facility requires be forced to pass some of this increase on to At IEC, we believe in the cooperative dif- extensive planning since the seating arrange- you. ference. The cooperative difference defines ments, stage and vendor placing and trustee Your Board of Trustees has retained the who we are and what we can achieve while election area are quite different from the old services of one of the top engineering firms looking out for our members’ best interests. gym. David Wilson and Clara Eulert who in the country to help us conduct a cost of comprise the Member Services Department service study. C.H. Guernsey & Co., based Offices Close Three at IEC and are responsible for the annual in Oklahoma City, is one of the nation’s top meeting, do an outstanding job. If you have electric utility rate firms. A cost of ser- Days in November attended an IEC annual meeting, you know vice study examines all of IEC’s wholesale most of our employees attend to help out. power and operating costs and allocates them IEC offices in Cleveland and Employees from every department help set properly to each rate class. This helps us Fairfax will be closed Monday, up the facility, register members, direct traf- design rates that provide an adequate rate of Nov. 12, and Thursday, Nov. 22 fic, hand out gifts and prizes and any other return for each class. In short, it makes sure and Friday, Nov. 23. job that needs to be done. I greatly appreci- IEC recovers costs from each class fairly and Dispatchers and service person- ate their efforts to make our annual meeting equitably. nel will be on duty if you should the best it can be. Even with these upcoming rate increases, experience an outage. Please call My message at this annual meet- IEC rates will remain competitive. Okla- (918) 358-2514 or 1-800-482- ing was similar to the message I delivered at homa has average residential rates lower than 2750 to report any interruptions in last year’s annual meeting. At that annual any of the surrounding states. While this your electric service. meeting, I promised no rate increases in increase will close the gap, Oklahoma and 2007, but stressed we should be ready for a IEC rates will remain some of the lowest in INDIAN ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE, INC. Board of Trustees Bill Boone, President District 4 Office Hours Robert Burk, Vice-President District 7 7:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. (Monday - Friday) Greg Fielding, Sec.-Treas. District 8 (918) 358-2514 Mike Spradling District 2 www.iecok.com Berry Keeler District 3 Wanda Foster District 5 To Report an Outage Loris Peckenpaugh District 6 (918) 358-2514 or 1-800-482-2750 Rock Reese District 9 To Report Meter Readings (918) 295-9520 Jack Clinkscale, General Manager Kay Rabbitt-Brower, Editor The Lamp (USPS 942-940) is published monthly by Indian Electric Cooperative, Inc., P.O. Box 49, Highway 64 South- east, Cleveland, Oklahoma 74020 for the interest of its membership. Subscription price was $0.17 per month in 2006. Periodical postage paid at Cleveland, Oklahoma and additional mailing offices. - Postmaster: Send address changes to The Lamp, P.O. Box 49, Cleveland, OK 74020. 2 THE LAMP NOVEMBER 2007 WWW.IECOK.COM First Boy Scout Troop...continued from Page 1. ka, with the last of the troop arriving home four days after leaving Pawhuska. Mitchell taught the young boys prin- ciples of Scouting, which they used through- out their lives, says Taylor. “Those boys all grew up to be contrib- uting citizens to the town and state,” she says. “Walter Johnson owned the local fu- neral home and served on the town council, and Joe McGuire owned an insurance and real estate business and was very active in numerous civic affairs. He was also on the first board of directors for the museum.” She says many also served their country through military service. Taylor says when the Cherokee Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America was formed in Bartlesville, the Pawhuska troop became Troop #33, and is a continuance of that first troop. “The Pawhuska troop has produced sev- eral Eagle Scouts throughout the years too,” she adds. Eagle Scout is the highest rank a Boy Scout can achieve. It is a performance- based achievement earned through leader- ship, service and outdoor skills. According to a Boy Scouts of America fact sheet, only about 5% of all Scouts become Eagle Scouts. To commemorate the nation’s first Boy Scout troop, a life-size bronze statue of a Boy Scout wearing the English uniform stands at the front of the museum. It was created by Pawhuska artist and sculptor Bill Sowell. Another famed Pawhuska sculptor Jim Hamilton created a life-size three-person sculpture of a Scout leader and two young Scouts around a campfire which sits in a grassy area to the south of the museum building. Rev. Mitchell continued to be the leader of Troop #1 until 1911 when he was assigned to a church in New York. While he made his home in the capital of the Osage Nation, he succeeded in living the Boy Scout slogan of ‘doing a good turn’ when- ever he had the opportunity. But his best ‘good turn’ was teaching Scouting principles of good character, citizenship and personal fitness to young boys on the rolling plains of northern Oklahoma.