National Scouting Museum

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1329 West Walnut Hill Lane, Irving, Texas 75038(800) 303-3047

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National Scouting Museum

by zabelle

Portland, Connecticut

February 2, 2007

Best of IgoUgo Anyone who ever was or is a Boy Scout or even wanted to be a Boy Scout will enjoy this museum. It has 53,000 square feet and over 500,000 artifacts. The building is a little off the beaten track but it will be obvious when you see the large ...Read more Anyone who ever was or is a Boy Scout or even wanted to be a Boy Scout will enjoy this museum. It has 53,000 square feet and over 500,000 artifacts. The building is a little off the beaten track but it will be obvious when you see the large sculpture which is the correct building. We had a %50 off coupon of the usual $8. In the lobby you will see large plaques with the Boy Scout oath, law and a huge fleur de lis. Our first stop was the Norman Rockwell Gallery. You can use your cell phone to do an audio tour of the gallery. It was very well done. From 1925-1974 in al but two years he produced a calendar for the Boy Scouts. His involvement with scouting had begun much earlier when he had been an illustrator for Boys Life and he was one of the all time great supporters of Scouting.

After leaving the Gallery we went to the History Theater. Sir Robert Baden Powell is our host and he introduces us to the scouting and the 15-minute video. We learnt about the founding of scouting in England where loyalty to country and morality of character were the hallmarks. He wrote a book called “Scouting for Boys” which laid out his design for scouting. It was William Boyce who introduced scouting to the US in 1910 and it was James West who is responsible for the development and the organization of the BSA. We learnt about famous men who were eagle scouts, Neil Armstrong, Hank Aaron, Nolan Ryan, Walter Cronkite and Gerald Ford.

After the video we went through the display of memorabilia from the founders of scouting and some famous scouts' flags, uniforms, histories and lots more.

When we entered we were given 2 tokens each. We got to use these in the shooting gallery. I just want to point out that I had the highest score. Evidently I missed my calling as a sharpshooter.

I found the section on the Pinewood Derby of particular interest. They had a really big wooden derby car. We have gone though this with our children and now with our grandchildren. You can sit at the campfire and hear stories told by an animatronic scoutmaster. Al and Joe had a great time racing each other on bikes at the virtual reality gamebike adventure area.

There are several other areas on Jamborees, camping, spelunking as well as virtual fishing. Al was disappointed that he didn’t still have his tokens.

We finished by looking at cases of badges and awards.

The gift store is a scouts dream. I was able to get my grandson who is a bear some stickers and they had pens, pencils, mugs and a whole lot of other stuff as well as official scouting materials, uniforms and books.

Allow a couple of hours at least. Close

From journal Doing The Big D

National Scouting Museum

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National Scouting Museum