1948-49 Area E/Area 3A Conferences
Posted in Area 3-A, Area 3-C, Area 3-D, Area 3-E, Section Conclave Patches by Dave Scocca on August 23rd, 2008 at 8:00 am The lodges of eastern Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia met in both 1948 and 1949, but there are no known memorabilia items from these meetings.
In 1948, the Area E conference was hosted by Octoraro Lodge 22 at Camp Horseshoe on May 1-2.
In 1949, the Area 3A conference was hosted by Unami Lodge 1 at Treasure Island Scout Reservation.
At the start of 1948, Area E contained twenty-three lodges:
- Unami 1
- Nawakwa 3
- Minsi 5
- Susquehannock XI
- Nentico 12
- Wyona 18
- Octoraro 22
- Winingus 30
- Ajapeu 33
- Swatara 39
- Delmont 43
- Pohopoco 44
- Ah-Pace 58
- Monaken 103
- Memeu 125
- Ne-Pah-Win 161
- Acahela 223
- Shenandoah 258
- Shenshawpotoo 276
- Quekolis 316
- Guneukitschik 317
- Wapsu Achtu 343
- Blue Heron 349
Two additional lodges in the area were first chartered during 1948: Tiadaghton 384 and Tuckahoe 386. It is not known whether these lodges were present at the Area E meeting that year, but they are on the list of Area 3A lodges as of September 1948.
A word on the terminology: for consistency with coverage of other areas I am referring to the area as “3A”. However, over a wide variety of memorabilia I have seen, inconsistency is the rule in the naming of both the area and its events. “III-A”, “III A”, “IIIA”, “3-A”, and “3A” are all used multiple times to refer to the area. The event is generally called a “Pow Wow” in the 1950s and a “Conference” in the 1960s and 1970s, but other terms are used and the boundaries are flexible. There are even years in which different names for both the area and the event appear on different memorabilia items.
(Sources: Dingwerth and Jensen’s Order of the Arrow Conclave Handbook, Volume 1, Rob Higgins’ OA Section List website, Blue Heron Lodge History, and Dave Hultberg’s list of conclaves attended by Susquehannock Lodge.)
Nearly fifty years later, in 1996, Blue Heron would find itself hosting SE-7’s “Cardinal Conclave”. This was a large section that included 3, 349 and 33 from Virginia along with nine lodges from North Carolina. This is the only time the lodges of eastern North Carolina would leave their state for a section conclave.
Three of those North Carolina lodges (188, 459, and 560) have since returned to the Dixie Fellowship (SR-6).
So Blue Heron lodge has been linked with both the Order’s founding lodge (Unami 1) and the bastion of Southern tradition and comraderie that is the Dixie Fellowship.
[...] 1950, Area 3A consisted of the same twenty-five lodges as it had in 1949. “When asked by an anthropologist what the Indians called America before the white man came, an [...]
[...] the Area 3A Pow Wow near Rising Sun, Maryland at Camp Horseshoe, which had been the site of the first Area E meeting in 1948. A yellow plastic neckerchief slide was issued for the event; the slide has the horseshoe [...]