National Scouting Museum to open at Philmont Ranch
Philmont Scout Ranch will dedicate the National Scouting Museum at 11 a.m. Saturday (Sept. 15). The ceremony and ribbon-cutting will be followed by a luncheon with guest speakers Gov. Suzanna Martinez and Chief Scout Executive Michael Surbaugh.
The Boy Scouts of America decided in 2016 to relocate the National Scouting Museum to Philmont Scout Ranch. With the financial help of donors, the National Scouting Museum – Philmont Scout Ranch was built to detail the rich history of scouting.
The museum is dedicated to preserving the 100-plus-year history of the scouting movement by collecting, organizing, preserving and displaying some of the organization’s greatest treasures, including 600,000 artifacts. This collection documents scouting’s influence on American culture and the lives of more than 110 million young people.
Camping gear, uniforms, service projects and more are housed in Exhibit Hall A. The history of Philmont Scout Ranch and the Southwest fill Exhibit Hall B. The museum also displays the ranch’s trails on an oversized topographical map and has on display priceless pieces of pottery and art work of Ernest Thompson Seton.
An estimated 32,000 people a year visit the Philmont Ranch in the mountains of northeastern New Mexico. Philmont is the Boy Scouts of America’s largest national high adventure base. Its 35 staffed camps and 55 trail camps provide outdoor adventure in the high country along hundreds of miles of rugged, rocky trails. More than 1 million scouts, venturers and leaders have experienced the adventure of Philmont since the first camping season in 1939.