Hankins Tales: Farewell Troop 50

(Originally posted to social media on December 20, 2023)

My old friend Steve Warren just posted a story in the BRMC Scouting History about the fact that Troop 50 was shutting down in Roanoke, Virginia. This is the scout troop that I joined way back in 1963 when I turned 11 years of age. I think that somehow I had convinced myself that the troop would be around forever and a day.

When I joined the troop it was thriving and active and large and growing and it was like a living thing.

I am haunted by the faces of all of those scoutmasters and leaders who played such a prominent role in my life. Bill Mason, Bob Davis, Whitey Whitehurst, Gus Gaines, Pat Patterson, Don Allison, even my own father was an Assistant Scoutmaster for a while. Each one of these men had a positive impact on the lives of hundreds of kids who came through that troop over the years. We always camped at Cherokee campsite in Camp Powhatan. It was always on the first week of camp and those memories inspire most of the stories that I post on this page almost everyday. Bill Mason’s ashes are scattered in that campsite and I can still imagine him standing along the creek catching native trout. Bill founded the troop in 1960 and I doubt that he anticipated all of the challenges Scouting would face over the next 60 years.

Scouting gave me something that is hard to define. It was a tangible sense that I could do anything I set my mind to. I was not inspired by school or church or sports — but in the Boy Scouts, by God, I was a natural. I went from being a scrawny , skinny kid to a man in the blink of an eye, and I made thousands of friends along the way. I was senior Patrol Leader for a few years and I earned Eagle by the time I was 17. I worked at Powhatan as a staffer from 1968 to1978. Best years of my life.

But in the beginning was the troop. We went somewhere each month to camp. I barely survived some of those early trips. You could actually read a newspaper through my first sleeping bag, it was very thin and it was cold in those days. I learned to cook in self defense because I knew that the gruel from the Bat Patrol was fatal on many different levels. I developed skills and I grew tall and I moved out into the world at 18. But strangely I got a full time job working for the Boy Scouts of America as a Camp Ranger. It was all I ever dreamed of. I retired after 36 years and after all of those Powhatan summers and it all started in troop 50.

Thanks for the memories, it was a great ride….

With permission of the author, these stories by noted scouter and storyteller John Hankins are featured here at Natahwop.Org. He shares these as part of the history and lore of Camp Powhatan, Camp Ottari, and the High Knoll Trail, where he spent many years of his youth. John has an incomperable first-hand knowledge of this scout reservation, as he blazed most of the original trails for High Knoll, and has hiked the rest of them several times over.

John Hankins grew up in Troop 50 (Woodlawn United Methodist Church) in Roanoke, VA. He attended Camp Powhatan as a young scout, then worked at Philmont Ranch as a ranger. He returned to the reservation to serve on camp staff from 1968 to 1978. He was a legendary naturalist who could interpret the outdoors unlike any other. As a teacher, John often relied on the element of excitement to get his point across. His weekly lectures at the nature lodge, for example, introduced scouts to either a live rattlesnake or copperhead – usually dangling on a stick within a few feet of the front row.

John and several others first envisioned the now-legendary High Knoll trail system. They took it to council leadership for prospective funding, where the idea gained several key advocates (but no funding). John recalls how – in those days – they couldn’t pay the staff with money, so they gave them patches. The High Knoll Trail would go on to become one of the best outdoor programs in the country.

John applied in 1979 for the open job of Camp Ranger, but the council said he needed more experience in that post. With his rejection letter in hand, he was immediately hired by Camp Chickohominy, and then by Camp Brady Saunders where he served for 33 years as Camp Ranger. John moved with his wife, Cheri, to West Virginia where they enjoyed the spoils of retirement: grandchildren, travel, and the great outdoors. As of 2024, they are living on the outskirts of Richmond where they can be closer to family.

(“Hankins Tales” are shared here by permission of the author. Each story is copyrighted by John Hankins, and may not be reproduced in any form without his express written permission.)

The Natahwop

Hankins Tales: Farewell Troop 50

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