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Trapper

Firecrafter - Camp Post

ORIGINAL MYSTERY  PATCH DESCRIPTION 1996

Matt Baldwin relates that former Firecrafter Historian John Pratt has a brain teaser that still remains unanswered. John wrote: "We were a part of a council contingency headed for Philmont. We would stay overnight one night and a day at the Koshare Indian dancers Kiva in La Junta Co. The scoutmaster's office in the kiva had a patch collection on the wall with patches from every council that had visited the kiva. Some of the patches were OA of course, but the familiar Firecrafter patch caught my eye. Since it is against the by-laws for non-fire members to hold insignia I was curious. I examined several patches with the Firecrafter design all said FIRECRAFTER at the bottom of the blue patch and the name of the rank across the top of the blue patch. The firecrafter patch remained the same, but camper, woodsman, or firecrafter was across the top. Imagine a firecrafter patch with the word CAMPER across the top and you get the picture. Weird and not from the CAC for sure. I also noticed one blue patch with a pine tree as the only insignia and a three pointed fire under the tree. The word FIRECRAFTER on the bottom and the word TRAPPER across the top of the blue patch. No other markings, and no one recognized the rank. Another mystery. I asked every one on staff at the kiva about the patch and most had no idea of what I was refering to. The scoutmaster is long dead now. So even another rank was invented some where in the USA."

Michael F. Bowman: My theory is that this Trapper patch was a rank similar to Minisino for Camp Post, South Plains Council, Texas, which once had an active Fire.

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UPDATE - MYSTERY SOLVED IN 2012

John Pratt writes to say that "According to Mr. Jimmy Stueart the resident historian and patch expert for the council out in Texas the  system goes like this. His daddy was a Trapper. The rank system went camper (red C blue patch with camp post onb the patch) Woodsman ( red c blue patch pine tree) and finally Trapper ( the woodsman patch adding the fire) Jimmy was not certain of the actual program steps to earn the ranks other that service to the camp and the tenderfoot , second class, and first class scout requirements He will send me information on the rank system when he finds it. There was no work done out side the camp. No advanced recognition of Minisino, No fire shirts no  big patches. No pocket rounders. The twill patches were sewn directly on to the pocket."