Philmont Scout Ranch
Encyclopedia
Philmont Scout Ranch is a large, rugged, mountainous ranch
Ranch
A ranch is an area of landscape, including various structures, given primarily to the practice of ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle or sheep for meat or wool. The word most often applies to livestock-raising operations in the western United States and Canada, though...

 located near the town of Cimarron
Cimarron, New Mexico
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 917 people, 382 households, and 255 families residing in the village. The population density was 479.5 people per square mile . There were 449 housing units at an average density of 234.8 per square mile...

, New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...

, covering approximately 137500 acres (556.4 km²) of wilderness in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains
Sangre de Cristo Mountains
The Sangre de Cristo Mountains are the southernmost subrange of the Rocky Mountains. They are located in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico in the United States...

 of the Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...

 of northern New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...

. The ranch, formerly the property of oil baron Waite Phillips
Waite Phillips
Waite Phillips was an American petroleum businessman who created a fully integrated operation that combined petroleum producing, refining and marketing. With headquarters in Tulsa, Oklahoma, he also developed several office complexes and engaged in banking and ranching...

 and now that of the Boy Scouts of America
Boy Scouts of America
The Boy Scouts of America is one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with over 4.5 million youth members in its age-related divisions...

, is currently in use as a National High Adventure Base in which crews of Scouts and Venturers take part in backpacking
Backpacking (wilderness)
Backpacking combines the activities of hiking and camping for an overnight stay in backcountry wilderness...

 expeditions and other outdoor activities. It is the largest youth camp in the world by size and number of participants. Between June 8 and August 22 around 22,800 Scouts and adult leaders engage in backpacking treks around the Ranch's extensive backcountry while over 1,200 seasonal staff personnel maintain the Ranch's summer operations.

Philmont is also home to the Philmont Training Center
Philmont Training Center
The Philmont Training Center , located at the Philmont Scout Ranch near Cimarron, New Mexico, has been the National Training Center of the Boy Scouts of America since 1950. The PTC offers week-long training conferences from June through September for council, district, and unit volunteers, BSA...

, which is the main center for BSA's national-level training for volunteers and professionals. In addition to its extensive BSA programs, Philmont continues to operate as a ranch, maintaining a relatively small stock of cattle
Cattle
Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...

, horse
Horse
The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...

s, burros and bison
American Bison
The American bison , also commonly known as the American buffalo, is a North American species of bison that once roamed the grasslands of North America in massive herds...

.

It is the site of the only documented Tyrannosaurus rex
Tyrannosaurus
Tyrannosaurus meaning "tyrant," and sauros meaning "lizard") is a genus of coelurosaurian theropod dinosaur. The species Tyrannosaurus rex , commonly abbreviated to T. rex, is a fixture in popular culture. It lived throughout what is now western North America, with a much wider range than other...

track in the world (discovered in 1993 and formally identified in 1994) in North Ponil Canyon by Anasazi Trail Camp.

Location and geography

Philmont is located in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains
Sangre de Cristo Mountains
The Sangre de Cristo Mountains are the southernmost subrange of the Rocky Mountains. They are located in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico in the United States...

 of the Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...

 of New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...

. The closest village is Cimarron, New Mexico
Cimarron, New Mexico
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 917 people, 382 households, and 255 families residing in the village. The population density was 479.5 people per square mile . There were 449 housing units at an average density of 234.8 per square mile...

, which sits at 36°27'13.04" North, 104°57'29.81" West (36.4536222, -104.9582806). The address of the ranch is usually given as 17 Deer Run Rd., Cimarron, NM, 87714. It is also about 20 miles (30 km) west-northwest of Springer, New Mexico
Springer, New Mexico
Springer is a town in Colfax County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 1,285 at the 2000 census. It was the Colfax County county seat from 1882—1897. Springer was part of the Lucien B. Maxwell land grant. It is near the Cimarron Cutoff of the Santa Fe Trail...

, and 35 miles (56 km) southwest of Raton, New Mexico
Raton, New Mexico
Raton is a city in Colfax County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 7,282 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Colfax County. The city is located just south of Raton Pass.-Name:...

. It is about 12 miles (19 km) across (east to west) at its widest point, and about 30 miles (48 km) long. There are no mountains to the south of Philmont, or to the east (indeed, part of the eastern fringe of the ranch is prairie
Prairie
Prairies are considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the dominant vegetation type...

) but the interior is quite mountainous.

The lowest elevation is 6,500 feet (1981 m), at the southeast corner. The highest point is the peak of Baldy Mountain at 12,441 feet (3792 m), located on the ranch's northwest boundary. The most recognizable landmark is the Tooth of Time
Tooth of Time
The Tooth of Time is an igneous intrusion of dacite porphyry formed in the Tertiary period of the Cenozoic era some 22-40 million years ago. The Tooth is located five miles southwest of Cimarron, New Mexico, USA and is on the property of Philmont Scout Ranch, and is one of Philmont's most popular...

 at 9,003 feet (2744 m), a granite monolith protruding 500 feet (150 m) vertically from an east-west ridge. Tooth of Time Ridge, and the latitude line on which it sits, mark the boundary between the central and southern sections of Philmont. The boundary between the central and northern sections is around U.S. Route 64
U.S. Route 64
U.S. Route 64 is an east–west United States highway that runs for 2,326 miles from eastern North Carolina to just southwest of the Four Corners in northeast Arizona. The western terminus is at U.S. Route 160 in Teec Nos Pos, Arizona. The highway's eastern terminus is at NC 12 and U.S. Route...

, which runs just south of the narrowest part of the 'I'-shape, which is only a few miles across.
Aside from Baldy, the ranch contains a number of prominent peaks. Directly south of Baldy lies Touch-Me-Not Mountain, which is located in Cimarron Canyon State Park. The South Country is home to a series of six difficult peaks, namely Mount Phillips, Comanche Peak, Big Red, Bear Mountain, Black Mountain, and Schaefers Peak. The final prominent South Country peak is Trail Peak, which is popular for its relative ease, its nearness to Beaubien, and the wreckage of the crash of a B-24 bomber in 1942 near its summit.

Of the ranch's various hikeable peaks (where a trail leads to the peak), Black Mountain is widely considered the most difficult, followed closely by Baldy and Big Red. Other prominent landmarks on the ranch include Grizzly Tooth, Window Rock, Deer Lake Mesa, and Urraca Mesa
Urraca Mesa
Urraca Mesa is a large mesa located in Colfax County in northern New Mexico on the property of Philmont Scout Ranch. It reaches an elevation of 8,583 feet and has coordinates of N 36.413647 and W 104.998059...

.

Urraca Mesa was owned by Elias Cory an immigrant from Lebanon. After a tragic automobile accident, the ranch was re-possessed for unpaid taxes. These circumstances might give extra reason for its being allegedly haunted
Ghost
In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to...

.

History

Native Americans
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

 of the Jicarilla Apache
Jicarilla Apache
Jicarilla Apache refers to the members of the Jicarilla Apache Nation currently living in New Mexico and speaking a Southern Athabaskan language...

 tribe
Tribe
A tribe, viewed historically or developmentally, consists of a social group existing before the development of, or outside of, states.Many anthropologists use the term tribal society to refer to societies organized largely on the basis of kinship, especially corporate descent groups .Some theorists...

 and Ute
Ute Tribe
The Ute are an American Indian people now living primarily in Utah and Colorado. There are three Ute tribal reservations: Uintah-Ouray in northeastern Utah ; Southern Ute in Colorado ; and Ute Mountain which primarily lies in Colorado, but extends to Utah and New Mexico . The name of the state of...

 tribe once inhabited Philmont. A few Native American archaeological
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...

 sites exist in the northern section nearby the 'Indian Writings' camp, and various camps seek to preserve Philmont's Native American heritage.

On April 22, 1942, a B-24 Liberator
B-24 Liberator
The Consolidated B-24 Liberator was an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and a small number of early models were sold under the name LB-30, for Land Bomber...

 crashed into the side of Trail Peak. Waite Philips led a rescue crew up, but the 7 men on board were killed on impact. Among the casualties was Eagle Scout
Eagle Scout (Boy Scouts of America)
Eagle Scout is the highest rank attainable in the Boy Scouting program of the Boy Scouts of America . A Scout who attains this rank is called an Eagle Scout or Eagle. Since its introduction in 1911, the Eagle Scout rank has been earned by more than 2 million young men...

 Roland L. Jeffries and Star Scout Charles O. Reynard, Jr. Some of the wreckage still remains, including a wing and propeller, and because of its location, it is the world's most visited airplane crash site.

Private ownership

In the mid-19th century, the Santa Fe Trail
Santa Fe Trail
The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century transportation route through central North America that connected Missouri with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pioneered in 1822 by William Becknell, it served as a vital commercial and military highway until the introduction of the railroad to Santa Fe in 1880...

 crossed the plains just southwest of Philmont. The Tooth of Time
Tooth of Time
The Tooth of Time is an igneous intrusion of dacite porphyry formed in the Tertiary period of the Cenozoic era some 22-40 million years ago. The Tooth is located five miles southwest of Cimarron, New Mexico, USA and is on the property of Philmont Scout Ranch, and is one of Philmont's most popular...

 owes its name to this trail; travelers knew that once they passed it, they had only one week to go until they reached Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...

. Philmont's strategic location along the trail spurred some interest in it. In 1841, Carlos Beaubien and Guadalupe Miranda
Guadalupe Miranda
Guadalupe Miranda was a Mexican public official who was mayor of Ciudad Juárez and recipient of the Beaubien-Miranda Land Grant.-Early life:...

 obtained a large land grant from the Mexican
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 government, including the present ranch. Soon the grant fell into the hands of Beaubien's son-in-law Lucien Maxwell
Lucien Maxwell
Lucien Bonaparte Maxwell was a rancher and entrepreneur who at one point owned more than . Along with Thomas Catron and Ted Turner, Maxwell was one of the largest private landowners in United States history....

, who played an important role in developing and settling it. Maxwell sold the ranch to the Maxwell Land Grant and Railroad Company
Maxwell Land Grant
The Maxwell Land Grant, also known as the Beaubien-Miranda Land Grant, was a Mexican land grant in Colfax County, New Mexico and part of adjoining Las Animas County, Colorado. This land grant was one of the largest contiguous private landholdings in the history of the United States...

, which gave up and handed it on to a Dutch development company, which decided to parcel it out to ranchers.

One of the most prominent ranchers was Jesus Gil Abreu
Jesus Gil Abreu
Jesus Gil Abreu was a rancher and pioneer who owned a New Mexico ranch that now comprises Philmont Scout Ranch.He was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico...

, who ran the Abreu Rayado Ranch from the 1870s to his death in 1901. Operating from the Rayado Settlement
Rayado, New Mexico
Rayado or Reyado was the first permanent settlement in Colfax County, New Mexico, United States and an important stop on the Santa Fe Trail.- Overview :...

, he raised cattle
Cattle
Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...

, goat
Goat
The domestic goat is a subspecies of goat domesticated from the wild goat of southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the Bovidae family and is closely related to the sheep as both are in the goat-antelope subfamily Caprinae. There are over three hundred distinct breeds of...

s, sheep, as well as growing limited amounts of crops. The family owned this property until 1911, when they sold most of it off. One of the sons remained on the ranch near the site of Abreu, a present staffed camp, and his homestead
Homesteading
Broadly defined, homesteading is a lifestyle of simple self-sufficiency.-Current practice:The term may apply to anyone who follows the back-to-the-land movement by adopting a sustainable, self-sufficient lifestyle. While land is no longer freely available in most areas of the world, homesteading...

 was preserved for years. However, the building was made from adobe
Adobe
Adobe is a natural building material made from sand, clay, water, and some kind of fibrous or organic material , which the builders shape into bricks using frames and dry in the sun. Adobe buildings are similar to cob and mudbrick buildings. Adobe structures are extremely durable, and account for...

 and collapsed. The foundation of this building now serves as the foundation for the Abreu cantina. The house was reconstructed in 1998 about 100 feet (30.5 m) uphill.

The history of mining
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...

 at Philmont dates back to the years immediately after the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

. At the time, many U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 soldiers were stationed in the West, as the U.S. Army was driving out the American Indians
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

. The story is that one of these soldiers befriended an Indian, who happened to give him a shiny rock. The shiny material in the rock was found to be copper
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...

. According to the story, the soldier and two of his friends went up to investigate, and found gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...

. However, they could not stay and mine the gold, and by the time they returned the next year, the area was overrun by miners. Scores
20 (number)
20 is the natural number following 19 and preceding 21. A group of twenty units may also be referred to as a score.-In mathematics:*20 is the basis for vigesimal number systems....

 of gold mines were excavated
Earthworks (engineering)
Earthworks are engineering works created through the moving or processing of quantities of soil or unformed rock.- Civil engineering use :Typical earthworks include roads, railway beds, causeways, dams, levees, canals, and berms...

 in Philmont, and operated into the early 20th century. A large vein of gold is said to lie under Mount Baldy to this day, but extracting it has not been feasible. In fact, its a common joke at Philmont that some day the mines under Baldy will collapse and Phillips will be the highest mountain in Philmont. The Contention Mine, located at Cyphers Mine, and the Aztec Mine, located at French Henry, are open to guided tours.

The penultimate owner of Philmont was wealthy oil magnate and wilderness enthusiast Waite Phillips
Waite Phillips
Waite Phillips was an American petroleum businessman who created a fully integrated operation that combined petroleum producing, refining and marketing. With headquarters in Tulsa, Oklahoma, he also developed several office complexes and engaged in banking and ranching...

, who amassed a large part of the old land grant in the 1920s, totaling over 300,000 acres (1,200 km²). Phillips built a large residence in the lowlands of Philmont, and called it the Villa Philmonte
Villa Philmonte
The Villa Philmonte is a large ranch manor located outside of Cimarron, New Mexico, on the Philmont Scout Ranch property of the Boy Scouts of America....

. The ranch became a private game reserve for Phillips and his friends, and a number of hunting lodges and day-use camps were built. It would not have been beyond his means to bring electricity
Electricity
Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...

 to those camps, but he decided not to. Some of these camps, including Fish Camp and the Hunting Lodge, have been preserved, complete with wood-burning stoves
Stove
A stove is an enclosed heated space. The term is commonly taken to mean an enclosed space in which fuel is burned to provide heating, either to heat the space in which the stove is situated or to heat the stove itself, and items placed on it...

, oil lamp
Oil lamp
An oil lamp is an object used to produce light continuously for a period of time using an oil-based fuel source. The use of oil lamps began thousands of years ago and is continued to this day....

s, and unique design features indicative of Phillips's often eccentric taste.

Boy Scout involvement

Phillips sometimes allowed others to visit his ranch, including a few Boy Scout troops. He was so impressed with the Scouts that in 1938, he donated 35,857 acres (145 km²) to the Boy Scouts of America
Boy Scouts of America
The Boy Scouts of America is one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with over 4.5 million youth members in its age-related divisions...

. The only condition was that it be used "for the benefit of the members of the Boy Scout organization" and the second larger donation had only the condition that it pay its fair share of taxes on any portion devoted to competitive commercial operations. They initially named it the "Philturn Rockymountain Scoutcamp". The word 'Philturn' comes from Waite Phillips's name, together with the "Good Turn" he did by donating the property. In 1941, Phillips added more Philmont property, including the Villa Philmonte, bringing the total to 127,395 acres (516 km²). (Contrary to popular belief, Phillips did not give his entire ranch to the BSA, but only those properties that would have the most recreational value. The total donation comprised about 40% of the ranch.) To help fund the upkeep of Philmont, he threw in his Philtower office building in Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 46th-largest city in the United States. With a population of 391,906 as of the 2010 census, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with 937,478 residents in the MSA and 988,454 in the CSA. Tulsa's...

. The ranch's name was changed at this time to the "Philmont Scout Ranch and Explorer Base".

Philmont was run differently in the early years than it is now. Half a dozen "base camps" were constructed at strategic locations. A visiting group of Scouts would stay at one of these camps for a week, and day-hike to surrounding locations of interest. If the Scouts wanted to visit a different area, they would pack up their gear, hoist it onto burro
Burro
The burro is a small donkey used primarily as a pack animal. In addition, significant numbers of feral burros live in the Southwestern United States, where they are protected by law, and in Mexico...

s, and hike to another base camp. Eventually, possibly due to the advent of modern lightweight metal-frame backpacks and other backpacking
Backpacking (wilderness)
Backpacking combines the activities of hiking and camping for an overnight stay in backcountry wilderness...

 technology, the program was restructured to be backpacking-based.

In 1963, through the generosity of Norton Clapp
Norton Clapp
Matthew Norton Clapp was a Weyerhaeuser chairman who was among the private investors who built and owned the Seattle Space Needle....

, vice-president of the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America, another piece of the Maxwell Land Grant was purchased and added to Philmont. This was the Baldy Mountain mining area, consisting of 10,098 acres (41 km²).

In recent years, Philmont has also been able to gain use of the Valle Vidal
Valle Vidal
The Valle Vidal is a 100,000-acre area in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains within the Carson National Forest, northwest of Cimarron, New Mexico. Pennzoil donated the Valle Vidal to the American public in 1982. Valle Vidal hosts a number of species of animals including elk, black bear, turkey,...

 Unit of the Carson National Forest
Carson National Forest
Carson National Forest is a national forest in northern New Mexico, United States. It encompasses 6,070 square kilometers and is administered by the United States Forest Service...

. Since 1989, Philmont has had a series of five-year special-use permits from the Forest Service, allowing crews to hike and camp in the Valle Vidal as part of their Philmont treks. Philmont operates three staffed camps— Whiteman Vega, Seally Canyon, and Ring Place —and two trail camps in that part of the Valle. Those camps serve around 3,000 Philmont campers each summer. Each camper performs three hours of conservation work in the Valle on projects approved by the Forest Service.

In addition, Rich Cabins, a historical farming cabin on Ted Turner
Ted Turner
Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III is an American media mogul and philanthropist. As a businessman, he is known as founder of the cable news network CNN, the first dedicated 24-hour cable news channel. In addition, he founded WTBS, which pioneered the superstation concept in cable television...

's Vermejo Park Ranch
Vermejo Park Ranch
The Vermejo Park Ranch is a ranch owned by Ted Turner in northeastern New Mexico and southern Colorado that is said to be the largest privately owned, contiguous tract of land in the United States....

, is also operated as a staff camp.

The Philmont Hymn

The "Philmont Hymn" the ranch's official song was written by John Benton Westfall (1928-May 9, 2009) in 1947 when he was 19. Westfall was the lone staffer at Visto Grande (then called Cimarron Bench Camp) at the time. Westfall, who at the time was a student at Pittsburg State University
Pittsburg State University
Pittsburg State University, also called Pitt State or PSU, is a public university with approximately 7,100 students located in Pittsburg, Kansas, United States. A large percentage of the student population consists of residents within the Pittsburg region; the gender proportion is relatively equal...

 wrote the song on a trip home to Kansas on a train from Philmont influenced by the "click-click, click-click" of the tracks. He would later be a professional scouter in Iowa, Kansas, and Oklahoma and worked as a salesman for Phillips Petroleum.

The Philmont Grace

The "Philmont Grace" (also known as the Worth Ranch Grace or simply the Wilderness Grace
Wilderness Grace
The Wilderness Grace, also known as the "Worth Ranch Grace" and the "Philmont Grace", is the common name of a simple prayer recited before meals at many Boy Scout camps around the United States. The original version, the "Worth Ranch Grace", was written in 1929 by A. J...

) is a prayer recited before meals at many Boy Scout camps and events around the U.S. It was originally written in 1929 by A. J. Fulkerson, Camp Director at Worth Ranch Scout Camp in Palo Pinto County, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

.

The original version of the grace, still used today, is:

For food, for raiment,

For life, for opportunity,

For friendship and fellowship,

We thank Thee, O Lord. Amen.

Trek

The standard and most popular Philmont program is the trek. A typical Philmont trek lasts 12 days and covers anywhere from 50 to 103 miles (80 to 166 km) of trail. In 2010 there were 35 different trek itineraries, ranging from challenging to super strenuous. Each trek is unique, covering distinct regions, peaks, and camps. A group of Scouts on a trek is called a crew; most crews are assembled by troops, Venturing crews, or local councils. A crew consists of eight to twelve people, with two to four adult leaders, a chaplain's aide, Wilderness Pledge Guia, and a crew leader. A contingent consists of one or more crews from the same council (see Boy Scouts of America: Organization), traveling together. Sister crews are crews that follow the same itinerary and are usually from different troops. Around 360 trekkers arrive at base camp every day of the season.

The first crews receive their guides, or Ranger, on June 8, and the last crews receive their Rangers on August 14. During the last few weeks of the season crews may be placed on shortened itineraries, which run from 6 to 9 days in length (compared to the typical 12).
A typical crew's experience is as follows:

The crew arrives in Base Camp, checks in at the Welcome Center, and meets its Ranger, a trained staff member from the Ranger Department. He or she assists them in the various Base Camp ("processing") procedures, which consist of completing all paperwork at Registration, verifying their itinerary with Logistics, checking out gear at Services (such as a dining fly, bear ropes, bear bags, and water purification tablets), and receiving health checks at the Health Lodge.

A crew also receives several days' worth of Philmont trail food, packaged in bags which feed two people each; the exact quantity depends on the crew's itinerary and the day on which it is scheduled to reach the next commissary (see below), but is usually 3 days worth of food. Philmont also provides optional cooking supplies.
The crew spends its first night in the Trailbound side of Tent City, where the trekkers sleep in canvas tents. The next morning, they eat breakfast at the dining hall, have their crew photo taken, and board a bus to one of the ranch's several trailheads (called "turnarounds" because they consist of a loop in the road for the bus to turn around).

The Ranger verifies the trekkers' general backpacking knowledge and teaches them specific Philmont procedures, such as bear procedure and latrine usage. Rangers stay with their crews on the trail for two days and depart on the morning of the third day. In the next eight days the crew will hike through the Philmont wilderness, staying at various staffed camps and unstaffed "trail camps" scattered about the Ranch. On the final day, the crew returns to Base Camp, sometimes by bus from a turnaround or by climbing over the Tooth of Time
Tooth of Time
The Tooth of Time is an igneous intrusion of dacite porphyry formed in the Tertiary period of the Cenozoic era some 22-40 million years ago. The Tooth is located five miles southwest of Cimarron, New Mexico, USA and is on the property of Philmont Scout Ranch, and is one of Philmont's most popular...

 and hiking directly into Base Camp. During the final day at Base Camp, the crew cleans up, returns various Philmont-issued supplies, and attends the closing campfire.

Conservation Department

The groups of trail workers known as "A-team" or Advanced Team are the first Conservation staffers to begin hiking and clearing the trails, one month prior to the first participants' arrival.

The five divisions of the Conservation Department, each led by an Associate Director of Conservation (ADC), are Conservationists, GIS, Order of the Arrow Trail Crew (OATC), Environmental Education (R.O.C.S., Trail Crew Trek), and Work Crew.

Conservationists live in staff camps and lead conservation projects for treks passing through their camp. The GIS staff map trails, campsites, and other features of the Philmont Backcountry. OATC leads Order of the Arrow members on a two week experience — one week building trail and one week on a trek of the participants' design (not a standard pre-determined itinerary). ROCS instructors lead both male and female crews on a 21 day experience that encompasses most of Philmont and the Valle Vidal, in which participants are taught over 20 structured lessons including, but not limited to, conservation techniques, hydrology, geology, dendrology, land management practices, ecology, and soil science. Trail Crew Trek instructors lead participants on a fourteen-day education experience rooted in service through conservation. Participants build trail for seven days and then go on a seven-day trek anchored in conservation and environmental science education. Finally, Work Crews are staff groups who are responsible for maintaining and sometimes creating campsites and trails.

Also see: Roving Outdoor Conservation School
Roving Outdoor Conservation School
The Roving Outdoor Conservation School is a twenty-one day special trek program at Philmont Scout Ranch in Cimarron, New Mexico. The program is open to participants who are between the ages of sixteen and twenty-one. R.O.C.S...


Also see: Trail Crew Trek

Order of the Arrow Trail Crew

A 14-day program for Order of the Arrow
Order of the Arrow
The Order of the Arrow is the national honor society of the Boy Scouts of America . It uses American Indian-styled traditions and ceremonies to bestow recognition on scouts selected by their peers as best exemplifying the ideals of Scouting. The society was created by E. Urner Goodman, with the...

 (OA) members between the ages of 16 and 21, inclusively, allowing participants to work on various conservation projects around the ranch before embarking on a self-devised, week-long trek.
In Trail Crew, participants are led by Foremen, employed by the Philmont Conservation Department, and spend the first week of the program building a trail to be used by the thousands of scouts and scouters who visit the ranch each year.
On the trek, participants have the opportunity to enjoy the ranch which they have given service to, and take part in many program activities. Trail Crew is very popular because of the unique experience which it provides and its attractive price tag. Compared to a regular Philmont trek, OATC is $200 (plus transportation), and is used by many Scouts as a way to get to Philmont at a much more affordable price. Although the program is inexpensive, many OA lodges and sections will give scholarships to Arrowmen in need of assistance with the program or travel costs.

Trail Crew Trek

A fourteen-day educational program that enables participants to begin working towards the prestigious William T. Hornaday Conservation Award. The award was initiated in 1914 to inspire Scouts to become involved in conservation and environmental stewardship. Since its inception, only 1,100 Scouts have earned this award. Trail Crew Trek involves seven days of building trail, a seven day educational trek throughout Philmont, hands-on experience with a variety of conservation projects on the ranch, and visits from guest speakers involved in conservation and resource management.

Ranger Department

Rangers are responsible for ensuring that all participants know all required skills and procedures needed for backcountry treks. They generally will also hike along with crews on the 12-day treks for the first two days on the trail, during which time they teach and observe the crew. They are also responsible for maintaining a ready search-and-rescue team at all times for use on Philmont property or in surrounding areas. The Ranger Department also consists of Mountain Trek Rangers, who are responsible for taking out the week-long Mountain Treks associated with the Philmont Training Center.

Rangers are overseen by Ranger Trainers, who are experienced staffers who have finished at least one (usually two or more) season as a Ranger. Ranger Trainers, often referred to as "RTs," are responsible for training and supervising Rangers. RTs typically oversee 8-10 Rangers (organized in a Training Crew) and are themselves expected to take out two backpacking crews per summer.

The Ranger Department was founded in 1957. During the summer of 2007, the Philmont Staff Association coordinated a 50th Anniversary Ranger Reunion at the ranch. Over 300 former Rangers attended this event.

During summer 2010 the Ranger Department consisted of approximately 250 members, including the Ranger Trainers and members of "upper leadership" (program coordinators, Associate Chief Rangers, and the Chief Ranger). There were 26 Ranger Training Crews and a rotating contingent of Rangers from the three largest U.S. Service Academies, as well as a small group of Mountain Trek Rangers.

Rayado Program

A prestigious and very strenuous twenty-day program. Scouts are challenged physically, mentally, and spiritually. Rayado crews, each accompanied by two of the Ranger Department's selected members, are put together by Philmont staff and consist of people from different parts of the country. A person may only be a Rayado participant once, a Ranger may only be assigned to a Rayado crew once, and staff members are disqualified from participation in Rayado treks.

Ranch Hands

A program in which young men and women can earn an eight day Cavalcade
Cavalcade
Cavalcade may refer to:*Cavalcade, a horseback procession, parade, or mass trail ride*A huge parade*A huge procession*Suzuki GV1400 Cavalcade, a Suzuki luxury touring motorcycle available from 1985 to 1988 in North America...

 trek at Philmont by participating in an eight day work session. Participants work with the Horse Department staff taking care of Philmont's 250 head of horses and 80 head of burros. Participants help by hauling hay and feed, saddling horses, helping keep the horses shod, and assisting on Philmont trail rides. The work can be strenuous and requires top physical and mental conditioning. After the eight day work session, the Ranch Hands crew gathers together and embarks on an eight day Cavalcade under the leadership of a Horseman and Wrangler.

National Advanced Youth Leader Experience (NAYLE)

A high-intensity Boy Scout leadership course taught exclusively at Philmont Scout Ranch. It is based on backcountry high adventure skills and began in the summer of 2006. The course is available to Boy Scouts age 14 through 17 who have completed their local council National Youth Leadership Training
National Youth Leadership Training
National Youth Leadership Training is the current incarnation of youth leadership development training offered by the Boy Scouts of America . The program is conducted at the council level over a week or over two weekends. It is intended to provide standardized, in-depth training covering a number...

 (NYLT) course, or the local council's former JLT training course, and will be held during six one-week sessions. Based at Philmont's Rocky Mountain Scout Camp and taught at various locations across Philmont Scout Ranch, NAYLE replaces the National Junior Leader Instructor Camp (NJLIC), known in its last year as the National Youth Leader Instructor Camp (NYLIC). Unlike NYLIC, NAYLE is not intended to specifically train staffers for local NYLT courses. The program hones youth leadership skills through ethical decision making and participation in Philmont Ranger backcountry training. The program is strongly grounded in the philosophy of Servant leadership
Servant leadership
Servant leadership is a philosophy and practice of leadership, coined and defined by Robert K. Greenleaf and supported by many leadership and management writers such as James Autry, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Peter Block, Peter Senge, Max DePree, Scott Greenberg, Larry Spears, Margaret...

.

Program components

  • Patrol planning and goal setting
  • Wilderness First Aid
  • Project COPE
    Project COPE
    Project COPE is an acronym for Challenging Outdoor Personal Experience, a program in the Boy Scouts of America. It consists of different challenges for groups of scouts that involve teamwork and problem solving, or for individual scouts that test agility and individual skills...

  • Leave No Trace
    Leave No Trace
    Leave No Trace is both a set of principles, and an organization that promotes those principles. The principles are designed to assist outdoor enthusiasts with their decisions about how to reduce their impacts when they hike, camp, picnic, snowshoe, run, bike, hunt, paddle, ride horses, fish, ski or...

     Camping
  • GPS Land Navigation
  • Search and Rescue
    Search and rescue
    Search and rescue is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger.The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, mostly based upon terrain considerations...

     (SAR) Methods
  • Conservation

Other programs

  • Cavalcade
    Cavalcade
    Cavalcade may refer to:*Cavalcade, a horseback procession, parade, or mass trail ride*A huge parade*A huge procession*Suzuki GV1400 Cavalcade, a Suzuki luxury touring motorcycle available from 1985 to 1988 in North America...

    s
    are similar to standard treks, but are conducted on horseback. The packing restrictions are even more intense than a regular trek as participants are only allowed two standard sleeping bag stuff sacks to pack everything into, including their sleeping bags. The participants focus more on horse care than on other programs at the camp, though they still do take part in many other activities. Calvalcades last only 7 days total, with 2 days being in base camp.

  • Mountain Treks are a 6 day backpacking experience for youth PTC
    Philmont Training Center
    The Philmont Training Center , located at the Philmont Scout Ranch near Cimarron, New Mexico, has been the National Training Center of the Boy Scouts of America since 1950. The PTC offers week-long training conferences from June through September for council, district, and unit volunteers, BSA...

     participants.

  • The Roving Outdoor Conservation School
    Roving Outdoor Conservation School
    The Roving Outdoor Conservation School is a twenty-one day special trek program at Philmont Scout Ranch in Cimarron, New Mexico. The program is open to participants who are between the ages of sixteen and twenty-one. R.O.C.S...

    (ROCS) teaches participants about ecology, conservation techniques, and trail construction methods. ROCS also is noted for being the only program to eat regular food while on the trail, instead of the normal freeze dried food.

  • Philmont Autumn Adventure program

  • Kanik
    Kanik
    Kanik is the winter camping program of Philmont Scout Ranch, the best known of the three National High Adventure Bases operated by the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America . This cold weather camping program is based on a similar program called Okpik at Charles L...

    is a winter program similar to Northern Tier
    Northern Tier National High Adventure Bases
    The Northern Tier National High Adventure Bases are a collection of high adventure bases run by the Boy Scouts of America in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness of Minnesota, Ontario's Quetico Provincial Park, Manitoba's Atikaki Provincial Wilderness Park and points beyond...

    's Okpik
    Okpik
    Okpik, pronounced as is the cold-weather adventure program offered by the Boy Scouts of America's Northern Tier National High Adventure Bases at the Charles L...

    .

  • Guided activities such as fishing, winter camping, and skiing, are offered throughout the year.

Philbreak

Program ran from 2003 to 2009. An 'alternative spring break' program started in 2003 to help restore Philmont Scout Ranch after devastating forest fires. From 2004 to 2007, the participants worked on the Urraca Trail, which is intended as a day hike for those attending the Philmont Training Center
Philmont Training Center
The Philmont Training Center , located at the Philmont Scout Ranch near Cimarron, New Mexico, has been the National Training Center of the Boy Scouts of America since 1950. The PTC offers week-long training conferences from June through September for council, district, and unit volunteers, BSA...

. Participants in the seven day program were expected to work eight or nine hour days in all types of conditions. The program took place during three separate weeks during March. Participants also had an opportunity to take a ski break at Angel Fire. In 2008, the design of the program switched to mirror that of Philmont's Kanik. Participants spent three days and two nights in Philmont's backcountry as well as provided service on the final day. The program did not operate in 2010.

Awards

By meeting the challenge of Philmont, participants are considered to be worthy of awards. The awards represent the Philmont experience that can never be sold or traded; only earned.

Arrowhead Award

An individual camper award is presented by their adult adviser when they have:
  • Attended opening campfire--"The New Mexico Story."
  • Completed a Philmont-approved itinerary with your crew.
  • Completed three hours of staff supervised conservation work or a camp improvement project on Philmont and took advantage of every opportunity to learn about and improve our ecology, and practiced the art of outdoor living in ways that minimize pollution of soil, water, and air.
  • Fulfilled the personal commitment to the Wilderness Pledge.
  • Live the Scout Oath and Law

50-Miler Award

All Philmont itineraries can qualify crew members for the 50-Miler Award
50-miler award
The 50-Miler Award is an award of the Boy Scouts of America designed to promote the ideals of Scouting and in Scoutcraft, conservation, self reliance, and physical fitness. The award may be earned by Boy Scouts, Varsity Scouts, Venturers and leaders....

 as it relates to distance. 3 of the 10 required service hours must be done at Philmont. Even if the award's requirements are completed at Philmont, the unit's leader must file an application for the group at their local council's service center.

"We All Made It" plaque (WAMI Award)

An award presented by Philmont to each crew (leader) that:
  • Demonstrated good camping practices and Scouting spirit.
  • Followed an approved itinerary and camped only where scheduled.
  • Fulfilled the commitment to the Wilderness Pledge.
  • Took advantage of every opportunity to learn about and improve our ecology, and practiced the art of outdoor living in ways that minimize pollution of soil, water, and air.

"Wilderness Pledge Guia (Guide)

Philmont has asked each participant to sign the Philmont Wilderness Pledge which declares that he or she will do everything possible to preserve the beauty and wonder of the Philmont Wilderness and our neighbor's properties through good Scout Camping.
Eligibility:
  1. Youth Crew members and adults are eligible to participate in the program.
Program:
  1. Take part in the Ranger lead training for the Philmont Wilderness Pledge and Leave No Trace.
  2. Follow all Philmont Camping Practices as outlined by the Ranger throughout the trek.
  3. Practice all Philmont Bear and Wildlife procedures throughout the trek.
  4. Take part in the seven trail discussions with your crew hat will focus on one of the seven principles of Leave No Trace and find examples of the focus principle during that day of the trek.
  5. Complete three hours of conservation work under the direction of a member of the Philmont Staff. (This requirement is also one of the requirements to earn the Philmont Arrowhead Patch. These hours count for both awards.)

Duty to God Award

Under the guidance of a crew chaplain's aide, each participant in a trek may work to fulfill the requirements of the Duty to God Award. Requirements include attendance at a religious service, participation in at least three daily devotionals and leading Grace before a meal.

"P" patch set

The "P" or "Dollar" or "Silver Dollar" patch set was earned from 1942 through 1956. The full set consisted of the base round "P" Philmont patch ringed by 6 specialty segment awards, plus additional staff and Mountainman segments below the ring of segments. The ring segments included a Sportsman segment for shooting field sports, a Camper (black pot) segment for woods housekeeping (precursor to Leave No Trace), a Horseman yellow spur segment, a beaver lodge Conservation segment, and Woodsman and Naturalist segments. Below that ring was the coveted Mountainman award for those who completed multiple requirements while attending for three years, and who "have proven themselves to be in love with the out-of-doors".

Camps

Philmont now operates from one large base camp. For the 2007 season there were 34 staffed camps and 65 unstaffed camps, known as "trail camps". Trail camps may, or may not have a nearby water source. Those without water are referred to as "Dry Camps". Philmont's camps are generally set no more than a couple of miles apart. Every few years new camps are created, such as the House Canyon Trail Camp in 2007, and camps are closed or relocated, for instance Comanche Camp was relocated in 2006 due to flooding. Currently there are in excess of 25 closed camps, many of which will never re-open as a result of evolving safety protocols. For instance camps once located on top of Urraca Mesa, or in the Baldy Saddle will likely never reopen as their locations posed lightning risks.

Base Camp

Base Camp is the center of all Philmont administration, ingress, and egress. Most of its area is occupied by Camping Headquarters; ancillary facilities include the Seton Museum (devoted to Ernest Thompson Seton
Ernest Thompson Seton
Ernest Thompson Seton was a Scots-Canadian who became a noted author, wildlife artist, founder of the Woodcraft Indians, and one of the founding pioneers of the Boy Scouts of America . Seton also influenced Lord Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting...

's Woodcraft Indians
Woodcraft Indians
The League of Woodcraft Indians was an American youth program, established by Ernest Thompson Seton. Despite the name, it was developed for non-Indian boys. It was later renamed the "Woodcraft League of America", and would also allow girls to join...

 and other works), the Philmont Training Center
Philmont Training Center
The Philmont Training Center , located at the Philmont Scout Ranch near Cimarron, New Mexico, has been the National Training Center of the Boy Scouts of America since 1950. The PTC offers week-long training conferences from June through September for council, district, and unit volunteers, BSA...

 and Villa Philmonte
Villa Philmonte
The Villa Philmonte is a large ranch manor located outside of Cimarron, New Mexico, on the Philmont Scout Ranch property of the Boy Scouts of America....

, the fire response facilities, the cattle headquarters, and the administration area. Its population exceeds that of Cimarron on most nights of the summer, according to the hiker's pamphlet. Mark Anderson is the current head of programs.

Its primary facilities are:
  • The Welcome Center, a large pavilion, which serves as a waiting area for crews arriving or departing from the ranch, as well as crews leaving or returning on a trek. The Welcome Center's small office offers check-in instructions and general information.
  • Camp Administration/Logistical Services, which manage registration and orchestrate all the ranch's operations.
  • Two dining halls, one for campers and one for staff.
  • Services, a large L-shaped building whose facilities include:
    • Rental and return of gear and issuance of trail food
    • Lockers, where crews may store anything they have brought but do not want to take on the trail
    • A post office, which handles mail for staff and crew members
  • The Health Lodge. Health officers communicate with backcountry staff by radio, and can dispatch Suburbans to retrieve patients if necessary.
  • Tooth of Time Traders, which sells all manner of camping and backpacking gear as well as a large selection of souvenirs.
  • The Snack Bar, in the same building at the trading post, which sells a variety of snack foods, beverages, and ice cream.
  • Four chapels of four different faiths: Catholic
    Catholic
    The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

    , Protestant, Jewish, and Latter-day Saints. Each chapel holds services every evening, and most incoming and some outgoing crews attend these.
  • Three tent cities: Trailbound, Homebound, and Staff. Each contains several showerhouses. The staff tent city's capacity is roughly 900, though it is rarely full; Trailbound and Homebound each hold between 400 and 500 trekkers.

Trail camps

A trail camp is a camp without a permanent staff presence. Trail camps always contain several campsites, but they can be spread out over half a mile of trail or more, so that there is no sense of crowding. Each trail camp is identified by a map, attached to a tree or the side of a latrine at every trail which passes through it.

Individual campsites are marked by:
  • A wooden sign nailed to a tree which indicates the campsite number. Signs are not supposed to be touched by anyone, in order to preserve them.
  • A metal fire ring
    Fire ring
    A fire ring is a device used to contain campfires and prevent them from spreading and turning into wildfires.A fire ring is designed to contain a fire that is built directly upon the ground, such as a campfire. Fire rings have no bottom, and are simply circles made of forged metal, stones,...

    . This may be used for small fires unless a fire ban is in place, which is often the case, given Philmont's dry climate.
  • A sump
    Sump
    A sump is a low space that collects any often-undesirable liquids such as water or chemicals. A sump can also be an infiltration basin used to manage surface runoff water and recharge underground aquifers....

    . This is an L-shaped plastic pipe, with a two-foot vertical section and a ten-foot horizontal section perforated like a sieve. Most of it is underground, and the top is capped with a piece of mesh. Sumps are used to dispose of dirty dishwater.
  • Several campsites usually share a bear cable away from the campsite. This is a metal cable strung between two sturdy trees at least ten feet above the ground; it is used to hang bear bags containing items that might attract animals.

  • Several campsites also share a latrine or toilet. Philmont latrines have the possibility of housing spiders below the seat, which is why campers are encouraged to remove possible pests on the underside of the boards with a stick. The latrines come in numerous configurations, but all of them are for excrement only, and are not to be urinated in, in order to reduce smell:
    • The open-air style with two adjacent seats is affectionately called the "pilot to copilot" design; this results from the joking conversation which often takes place between two campers using the toilet simultaneously.
    • The other open-air configuration, called the "pilot to bombardier", is generally preferred because its two seats are back-to-back and offer somewhat more privacy than the "pilot to copilot".
    • Occasionally a "single pilot" - one open-air seat — may be found.
    • The enclosed configuration, with walls and a red roof, is known as a Red Roof Inn. Older Red Roof Inns contain two adjacent seats and no door, while newer models have two back-to-back seats, with a wall between.
    • "Time Machines" (also called port-a-pots) are very rare to find in the backcountry, only found in places such as French Henry.

Staffed camps

Many camps have several live-in staff members who are in charge of the camp's "program", which consists of a wide variety of activities. Camps often carry a historical or modern theme, such as logging (Crater Lake and Pueblano), mining or blacksmithing (French Henry, Cypher's Mine, and Black Mountain), fur trapping and mountain man life (Miranda, Clear Creek), challenge events (Dan Beard, Head of Dean, and Urraca) or western lore (Beaubien, Clark's Fork, or Ponil). The program in a camp is run by staff known as Program Counselors. These Program Counselors are supervised by a Camp Director.

Specific program activities include black powder rifle loading and shooting, shotgun
Shotgun
A shotgun is a firearm that is usually designed to be fired from the shoulder, which uses the energy of a fixed shell to fire a number of small spherical pellets called shot, or a solid projectile called a slug...

 shooting and reloading, .30-06 shooting, trail rides on horseback, burro
Burro
The burro is a small donkey used primarily as a pack animal. In addition, significant numbers of feral burros live in the Southwestern United States, where they are protected by law, and in Mexico...

 packing and racing, rock climbing (on artificial towers as well as actual rock faces at Miner's Park, Cimarroncito and Dean Cow), tomahawk throwing, branding
Livestock branding
Livestock branding is a technique for marking livestock so as to identify the owner. Originally, livestock branding only referred to a hot brand for large stock, though the term is now also used to refer to other alternative techniques such as freeze branding...

, search and rescue
Search and rescue
Search and rescue is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger.The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, mostly based upon terrain considerations...

 training, mountain bicycling, Mexican homesteading, blacksmithing, goldpanning, obstacle courses, archeological sites, spar pole climbing, and a variety of campfires and evening programs.

Most staffed camps contain several campsites of the same sort which appear in trail camps (with the exception of French Henry); however, the primary distinguishing factor is the presence of one or several cabins. There is always a main cabin, where an arriving crew is given a "porch talk" by one of the staff members. This includes information about available program, location of trash receptacles, and other timely information such as the presence of "problem bears." Camps in the Valle Vidal
Valle Vidal
The Valle Vidal is a 100,000-acre area in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains within the Carson National Forest, northwest of Cimarron, New Mexico. Pennzoil donated the Valle Vidal to the American public in 1982. Valle Vidal hosts a number of species of animals including elk, black bear, turkey,...

 (Seally Canyon, Ring Place and Whitman Vega) have yurt
Yurt
A yurt is a portable, bent wood-framed dwelling structure traditionally used by Turkic nomads in the steppes of Central Asia. The structure comprises a crown or compression wheel usually steam bent, supported by roof ribs which are bent down at the end where they meet the lattice wall...

s, large circular semi-permanent tents which allow for bear defense but may be removed in the off-season in the interest of leave no trace
Leave No Trace
Leave No Trace is both a set of principles, and an organization that promotes those principles. The principles are designed to assist outdoor enthusiasts with their decisions about how to reduce their impacts when they hike, camp, picnic, snowshoe, run, bike, hunt, paddle, ride horses, fish, ski or...

 camping, rather than cabins.

Most staffed camps have a swap box—a box in which crews may place unwanted food and take anything they might desire. Predictably, swap boxes tend to fill up with foods that people tend not to like, get too much of, or food no one wants to carry.

With several exceptions, staffed camps accept garbage (not trash), send and receive mail, and offer purified water. The exceptions are those camps which have no road access or where the camps receive their supply shipments by burro. All staffed camps also contain radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...

s, by which staff members can communicate with Logistical Services, the Health Lodge, or each other. The radio is used for all manner of communication, including notifications of the movements of the ranch's various vehicles, logistical inquiries between camps and Base, major and minor medical issues, and a nightly itinerary read-out which often includes world news and a weather forecast. The ranch's non-stationary staff are assigned unit numbers, by which they identify themselves on the radio. The ranch also employs a variety of esoteric radio ten-code
Ten-code
Ten-codes, also known as ten signals, are code words used to represent common phrases in voice communication, particularly by law enforcement and in Citizens' Band radio transmissions....

s for rapid communication.

In all, there are 34 staffed camps currently at Philmont Scout Ranch, by name: Abreu, Apache Springs, Baldy Town, Beaubien, Black Mountain, Carson Meadows, Cimarroncito, Clark's Fork, Clear Creek, Crater Lake, Crooked Creek, Cypher's Mine, Dan Beard, Dean Cow, Fish Camp, French Henry, Harlan, Head of Dean, Hunting Lodge, Indian Writings, Miner's Park, Miranda, Phillips Junction, Ponil, Pueblano, Rayado, Rich Cabins, Ring Place, Sawmill, Seally Canyon, Urraca, Ute Gulch, Whitman Vega, Zastrow.

Commissaries

A commissary is a small warehouse which is stocked by weekly truck shipments with trail food for campers, real food for backcountry staff, and various other supplies. Sometimes there is a small room in the warehouse that holds a trading post, which sells a small variety of odds and ends, including postcards, postage, and games, along with repair kits, white gas
White gas
White gas is a common name for two flammable substances. In its most common modern usage, it is used as a generic name for camp stove and lantern fuel, usually naphtha....

 for crews' stoves, and other backpacking necessities. A crew typically stops by a commissary every 3–4 days in order to limit the quantity of consumables carried by the crew at any given point. Food is initially issued by the Services building in Base Camp, and is resupplied at the commissaries.

Philmont Museum and Seton Memorial Library

Philmont is also home to the Philmont Museum and Seton Memorial Library, which offers exhibits relating to the ranch's history and the history, art, and natural history of the Philmont area. The Ernest Thompson Seton
Ernest Thompson Seton
Ernest Thompson Seton was a Scots-Canadian who became a noted author, wildlife artist, founder of the Woodcraft Indians, and one of the founding pioneers of the Boy Scouts of America . Seton also influenced Lord Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting...

 Memorial Library is a research library containing Seton's personal collection and an extensive collection of volumes pertaining to western lore and the history of the area. Crews at the beginning or end of their trek can come here to sign up for a tour of the Villa Philmonte
Villa Philmonte
The Villa Philmonte is a large ranch manor located outside of Cimarron, New Mexico, on the Philmont Scout Ranch property of the Boy Scouts of America....

.

Kit Carson Museum

The Kit Carson Museum is a living museum
Living museum
A living museum is a type of museum, in which historical events showing the life in ancient times are performed, especially in ethnographic or historical views, or processes for producing a commercial product in terms of technical and technological developments are shown, especially the craft...

 that operates in the summer in Rayado
Rayado, New Mexico
Rayado or Reyado was the first permanent settlement in Colfax County, New Mexico, United States and an important stop on the Santa Fe Trail.- Overview :...

, located 7 miles (11.3 km) south of Philmont's headquarters. Interpreters demonstrate 1850s period frontier skills and crafts including blacksmithing, cooking, shooting and farming. The museum also features exhibits about frontiersmen Kit Carson
Kit Carson
Christopher Houston "Kit" Carson was an American frontiersman and Indian fighter. Carson left home in rural present-day Missouri at age 16 and became a Mountain man and trapper in the West. Carson explored the west to California, and north through the Rocky Mountains. He lived among and married...

 and Lucien Maxwell
Lucien Maxwell
Lucien Bonaparte Maxwell was a rancher and entrepreneur who at one point owned more than . Along with Thomas Catron and Ted Turner, Maxwell was one of the largest private landowners in United States history....

, who founded a colony at Rayado.

Notable former staff

  • Wally Berg
    Wally Berg
    Wally Berg is a mountaineer from the United States.Berg was the first American to summit Lhotse in 1990 and he solo'd Cho Oyu in 1987. He has summited Mount Everest four times....

     - Ranger in 1970s and Director of Conservation, first person to summit Lhotse in 1990.
  • Steve Fossett
    Steve Fossett
    James Stephen Fossett was an American commodities trader, businessman, and adventurer. Fossett is the first person to fly solo nonstop around the world in a balloon...

     - Ranger in 1961; also served on the Philmont Ranch Committee, later a record-breaking aviator.
  • Donald Rumsfeld
    Donald Rumsfeld
    Donald Henry Rumsfeld is an American politician and businessman. Rumsfeld served as the 13th Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford, and as the 21st Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2006 under President George W. Bush. He is both the youngest and the oldest person to...

     - 1949 guide (forerunner to the Rangers), later United States Secretary of Defense
    United States Secretary of Defense
    The Secretary of Defense is the head and chief executive officer of the Department of Defense of the United States of America. This position corresponds to what is generally known as a Defense Minister in other countries...

    .

See also

  • High-adventure bases of the Boy Scouts of America
    High-adventure bases of the Boy Scouts of America
    High-adventure bases of the Boy Scouts of America are outdoor recreation facilities located in several locales in North America operated by the Boy Scouts of America at the organization's national level. Each facility offers wilderness programs and training that could include sailing, wilderness...

  • High adventure programs of the Order of the Arrow
    High adventure programs of the Order of the Arrow
    The Order of the Arrow in the Boy Scouts of America, in its focus on service, contains four different high adventure programs at the national level that focus on conservation. These programs occur at the three national high adventure bases that the Boy Scouts own. They are only open to youth aged...

  • Roving Outdoor Conservation School
    Roving Outdoor Conservation School
    The Roving Outdoor Conservation School is a twenty-one day special trek program at Philmont Scout Ranch in Cimarron, New Mexico. The program is open to participants who are between the ages of sixteen and twenty-one. R.O.C.S...

  • Double H High Adventure Base
    Double H High Adventure Base
    Double H High Adventure Base, located on the Plains of San Agustin near Datil, New Mexico, was a satellite program base of the Boy Scouts of America's Philmont Scout Ranch from 2004 to 2009. The Double H High Adventure Base was located at the Torstenson Family Wildlife Center, formerly known as...

  • James P. Fitch
    James P. Fitch
    James P. Fitch was a Scouting notable in the early history of the Boy Scouts of America . During the first decade of the BSA, Fitch, a school teacher by vocation, was hired by the B.S.A. to travel with the Chautauqua circuit, setting up Scout troops in the towns and cities he visited...

  • Florida National High Adventure Sea Base
    Florida National High Adventure Sea Base
    The Florida National High Adventure Sea Base is a high adventure program base run by the Boy Scouts of America in the Florida Keys. Its counterparts are the Philmont Scout Ranch in northern New Mexico, the Northern Tier National High Adventure Bases in Ely, Minnesota, and The Summit Bechtel Family...

  • Northern Tier National High Adventure Bases
    Northern Tier National High Adventure Bases
    The Northern Tier National High Adventure Bases are a collection of high adventure bases run by the Boy Scouts of America in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness of Minnesota, Ontario's Quetico Provincial Park, Manitoba's Atikaki Provincial Wilderness Park and points beyond...

  • Outdoor education
    Outdoor education
    Outdoor education usually refers to organized learning that takes place in the outdoors. Outdoor education programs sometimes involve residential or journey-based experiences in which students participate in a variety of adventurous challenges in the form of outdoor activities such as hiking,...

  • Tooth of Time
    Tooth of Time
    The Tooth of Time is an igneous intrusion of dacite porphyry formed in the Tertiary period of the Cenozoic era some 22-40 million years ago. The Tooth is located five miles southwest of Cimarron, New Mexico, USA and is on the property of Philmont Scout Ranch, and is one of Philmont's most popular...

  • Wilderness Grace
    Wilderness Grace
    The Wilderness Grace, also known as the "Worth Ranch Grace" and the "Philmont Grace", is the common name of a simple prayer recited before meals at many Boy Scout camps around the United States. The original version, the "Worth Ranch Grace", was written in 1929 by A. J...

  • Girl Scout National Center West
    Girl Scout National Center West
    The Girl Scout National Center West was located just outside Ten Sleep, Wyoming, among the Big Horn Mountains, near the entrance to Ten Sleep Canyon. A portion of the center was one of the largest encampments in the world at of rugged wilderness near the entrance to Ten Sleep Canyon near the...

  • Mount Phillips (New Mexico)
    Mount Phillips (New Mexico)
    Mount Phillips, formerly called Clear Creek Mountain was renamed in 1960 in honor of the then living Waite Phillips, who donated the area to the Boy Scouts of America. It is located in Colfax County about 11 mi south of Baldy Mountain in the Cimarron Range, a subrange of the Sangre de Cristo...


Further reading

  • William F. Cass, Return to the Summit of Scouting/a Scouter's Midlife Journey Back to Philmont, ISBN: 0923568298, Wilderness Adventure Books, 1993.
  • William F. Cass, The Last Flight of Liberator 41-1133: The Lives, Times, Training & Loss of the Bomber Crew Which Crashed on Trail Peak at Philmont Scout Ranch, ISBN: 0970297203, Winds Aloft Press, 2000.
  • Stephen Zimmer & Larry Walker, Philmont: A Brief History of the New Mexico Scout Ranch, ISBN: 0865342938, Sunstone Press, 2000.
  • Michael Connelly, Riders in the Sky: The Ghosts and Legends of Philmont Scout Ranch, ISBN: 0936783303, Merril Press, 2001.
  • Lawrence R. Murphy, Philmont: A History of New Mexico's Cimarron Country, ISBN: 0826302440, University of New Mexico Press, 1976.

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