These 50 States: Rhode Island
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States Covered Thus Far
Here is the next installment in the series, “These 50 States”. As befits the smallest state, this is the shortest to date. With this post, the New England area is now complete.
There has only been one lodge headquartered in Rhode Island at any time. First we had Wincheck 534. That has since merged with Neemat 124 to form Abnaki 102. Neither Wincheck nor Abnaki lodges had any patches shape like Rhode Island. Neither lodge has used the state shape as part of a patch design. However, all is not lost.
1963 Area 1-A Fellowship Conference Patch
If I stretch the scope of this category to include section and area patches I do know of one Order of the Arrow patch in the shape of Rhode Island. This was the 1963 Area 1-A Fellowship Conference. In a way it’s a bit humorous that I need to make this category larger to cover the smallest state.
Yawgoog Scout Reservation
The design will look a bit familiar to those who collect New England OA or camp patches. The central part of the design is based upon the traditional patch design for Yawgoog Scout Reservation, then the home camp of Wincheck lodge.
NaJundam, translates from Lenape as “One Who Carries a Load” which is fitting for this design.
Also notice how sensibilities change over time. One the Area 1-A patch there is no doubt that the American Indian carrying the canoe is also smoking a pipe. Today society, in general, is not so accepting of portrayals of tobacco use. The Boy Scouts of America also has since taken a position against tobacco use. One the camp patch, the pipe appears to have been transformed into a nebulous “something”, but not really clearly identifiable as a pipe in my opinion.
If you know of any other patches that should be included here, please feel free to let me know.
As does the current Southern Region, the old Region 1 had a logo with a map of the states in the region. This logo or another variation on the map design–including Rhode Island, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut–was used for region-wide conferences in 1964 and 1969 and for the Area 1B conference in 1957.
Update on the Yawgoog design:
I just saw Abnaki’s NOAC 2009 set on eBay (don’t have an image for the site yet). The set features “Chief Yawgoog” and he is very obviously smoking a pipe. I’m kind of surprised this got past the BSA “Patch Design Police”.
I wonder if the traditional Yawgoog design is grandfathered in. They’ve had that pipe there for a long time.
(And what if the “patch design police” decide to turn their attention to the folks out in Wahissa?)