If your unit is planning a tour of Gettysburg check out:

• Gettysburg Troop 79 Local advice from loc
  
• Gettysburg Address
  
• Gettysburg National Military Park Homepage
  
• Outside Online - Gettysburg
  
• Welcome to Gettysburg
  

For other attractions in the nearby "Dutch Country" try http://padutch.welcome.com/.

Gettysburg Area Camping

You may want to consider camping at the former Youth Conservation Corps campsite in McPherson's Woods on the battlefield which is close to the Gettysburg Historical Trail (Patches and Medal). It is on the site of some on the Confederate encampments and has a great view of the Eisenhower farm. For information call (717) 334-1124 x423. Macmillian Youth Campground is also a part of the National Park and provides good camping facilities. Be sure to visit the Diorama Center and the Park Visitors Center.

Just up the road in Dillsburg, there are two BSA camps.

• Troop 196 has a small camp (Camp Pioneer) with a cabin that sleeps about 28 (there is also a small out-camp that will sleep an additional 8-10 people). It has a fireplace, electric stove, refrigerator and running water. It also has a pond and a pavilion. The rent is $150 for a weekend. Camp caretaker is Rick St. Louis (717) 728-3115.
• The other camp is York-Adams Area Council's Camp Tuckahoe. It has all the features of a typical BSA summer camp. Contact the council at (717) 843-0901.
  

For the Valley Forge area, you can try calling the Cradle of Liberty Council at (215) 988-9811. Their camps Delmont and Hart aren't too far from Valley Forge..

(Source - from Scouts-L) Dave Hultberg
Adventure District, Keystone Area Council
Mechanicsburg, PA.

Gettysburg - Local Campgrounds Include:

For more information, call or write:

Gettysburg Convention & Visitors Bureau

or

Gettysburg Tour Center
778 Baltimore St.
Gettysburg, PA 17325
(717) 334-6296

Historic Trail Patch

The York-Adams Council also offers a National Historic Trial patch/medal if you complete their small booklet. You can purchase one at the Gettysburg Tour Center for $1.00. The trail program is a four-part hike/tour. The main patch is awarded by attending the Electric Light Show at the Tour Center and touring the National Cemetery. The light show is free for scouts and two leaders can attend free as well. Scout(er)s can earn the other three trails/tours patches by taking a self-guided, 3-mile Johnny Reb Trail, a 9-mile Billy Yank Trail, and a tour of the Eisenhower Estate. Only the Eisenhower estate has a fee associated with it and it's about $2 each.

York-Adams Council Office: 1-800-569-5197

Leader comment about the trails:

Don't tour the battlefield by bus, bike or car. You should do it on foot. There is just no comparison; hiking the Battlefield has a much greater impact than seeing it in any other way. The local BSA council there has developed two trails, the Billy Yank Trail and the Johnny Reb Trail. They have also developed a booklet to be used by each Scout while walking the trail. The booklet has questions which each Scout must answer in order to *earn* the Billy Yank Trail Patch and the Johnny Reb Trail patch. The questions can only be answered by walking from site to site and discovering the answers. The answers are typically found on designated monuments on the Battlefield. Interspersed between the questions is some historical information, so the Scouts *learn* as they walk the Battlefield and try to locate the answers. You can make it into a competition if you like, because some of the answers are a little more difficult than others. One question requires a little math to complete; I think the question is what percentage of the Pennsylvania regiment was killed or wounded during the battle, or something like that. You could break the boys into teams and have the teams compete.

When I was there last, the booklet cost around $1.00. They are on sale in the Visitor Center. The Scoutmaster is required to mail in a form out of the booklet in order to purchase the patches. They are very nice patches (at least IMO). I don't recall the exact cost. There are acutally 4 separate patches, and they fit together all on one pocket. The other two segments of the composite patch are one for visiting the National Visitor Center and for visiting the Eisenhower Farm. The booklet has questions about each of those locations as well. You have to take a bus from the Visitor Center to get to the Eisenhower Farm.

The two hikes are 3 miles and 8 miles (as best I recall). At the end of one of the hikes, the Scouts walk from the Virginia Monument across the open field that General Pickett and his men charged in the famous Pickett's charge. It's a wide open field, with a hill at the far side. The Yankee troops were stationed at the top of the hill with cannons. There is considerable emotional impact (at least for the adults) to walk across that field and imagine being a rebel soldier charging up the hill into a line of cannons to the so-called "high water mark of the Confederacy." I believe the rebels were yelling the "rebel yell" as they charged, a yell descended from the Scotts who charged the Brits in the movie Braveheart.

It takes some time to complete the questions in the booklets, so if the Boys complete both hikes, see the Visitor Center, and visit the Eisenhower Farm, you will have had a pretty full weekend.

Nearby Attractions: Visit York and take the tour of the Harley-Davidson factory and motorcycle museum. Stop by Hershey Park for a tour of the chocolate factory at Hershey, Pennsylvannia.