Historic Trails

Historic Trails allow Scouters to bring history to life

For too many of us, “History” was a subject in school that involved memorization of the names of faceless dead people and dates of events that we had difficulty relating to. There was no obvious relevance to our lives. As a result, many adults and children want little to do with History.

For that reason, a variety of Historic Trails have been established to make available to the general public information about the history of the areas in which they are located. While walking by the sites of actual historical events (rather than reading about them), you can get a feel of the times and people who helped form countries and communities. By walking the many battlegrounds, you can see how the armies conducted their campaigns, an activity far more valuable and interesting than rote memorization of casualty statistics and dates. Even if you are not interested in patches and medals, a walk along the hike route while reading the written hike plan provided by the sponsor can provide a much better appreciation for the history of the area, as compared to what you can get from simply reading a textbook.