Boy Scouting in Cooperstown

The history of Boy Scouting in Cooperstown goes back more than fifty years.  Cooperstown has had all branches of scouting: Cub packs, Scout troops and Explorer posts.  Very few records are available about the earlier years.  One thing is sure, people in Cooperstown community and specifically

Cooperstown Commercial Club, Trinity Lutheran Church Brotherhood, Gordon Lindgren American Legion Post 143, and Cooperstown Jaycees have been strong supporters of scouting.  Cooperstown is the only community in North Dakota with its own Scout house located in the city park.

Hundreds of boys have been members over the years in the local scouting units.  Thirty-four scouts and explorers have reached to the highest rank in Scouting, Eagle Scout.  They are:

  1. Boyd Larson
  2. Herman Haugen Jr.
  3. Richard Howden
  4. Glenn Solberg
  5. Dennis Dahl
  6. Donald Dahl
  7. Lawrence Ryan
  8. Lance Cussons
  9. Larry Ellingson
  10. Jerry Haugen
  11. Harold Kjelgaard
  12. Robert Ohman
  13. Larry Ostenson
  14. Robert Syverson
  15. Blair Cussons
  16. Dale Svaren
  17. Michael Mack
  18. Greg Retzlaff
  19. Fred Weispfenning
  20. Roger Askelson
  21. Larry Tang
  22. Lyle Detwiller
  23. Ronald Dahl
  24. Elliot Haugen
  25. David Sayer
  26. James Lentsch
  27. Larry Hall
  28. Leslie Berdal
  29. Michael Torgerson
  30. Bradley Olgaard
  31. Jeff Mathisen
  32. Don Mrozla
  33. Greg Curtis
  34. Rob Hoffman.

The Scout House has a trophy case full of trophies from District and Council activities where the local explorers, scouts and cubs have been successful in competition.  Several scouts have attended national Jamborees and our scouters have served as leaders in national and world jamborees.

Seven Explorer Scouts have earned the high recognition from American Lutheran Church receiving the Pro Deo et Patria Scout Awards.  They are Robert Syverson, Glenn Solberg, Robert Ohman, Larry Ellingson, Jerry Haugen, Larry Tang and Elliot Haugen.  Three scouters from Cooperstown, Edgar Multer, L.A. Sayer and Bert Hoffman, are the recipients of "Silver Beaver" awards, highest recognition the local Boy Scout Council can bestow on a scouter.  Those fifty years of scouting in Cooperstown have been possible only thanks to the many men and women in the community who were willing to serve as unit leaders, den mothers, committeemen, merit badge counselors, commissioners and members of the district committee.

 

Source: Cooperstown, North Dakota 1882-1982 Centennial Page 231