• Hankins Tales:  Coffee’s Always Better Out of a Camp Mug

    Hankins Tales: Coffee’s Always Better Out of a Camp Mug

    (Originally posted to social media on September 10, 2020) An old friend of mine from England (Peter Hodson) sent me a message recently. He had found a bunch of old boy scout camp mugs when he was cleaning and he wanted to know what he should do with them. Nobody in his circle of friends…

  • Hankins Tales:  Remembering Daniel Janosko

    Hankins Tales: Remembering Daniel Janosko

    (Originally posted to social media on October 6, 2020) I feel compelled to note another passing. Sometimes it seems like that is all I do lately. So many old and dear friends have already gone on down that long and dusty camp road. My good friend Jeff Janosko dropped us a note saying that his…

  • Hankins Tales:  Remembering Jim Warren

    Hankins Tales: Remembering Jim Warren

    (Originally posted to social media on October 20, 2020) I have just learned of the death of yet another old friend. We went to the same elementary school and we lived in the same neighborhoods. We were members of the same Boy Scout troop and we walked many of the same trails over the years….

  • Over 40 Roanoke Scouting News Clips From the ’50s and ’60s Made Available

    Over 40 Roanoke Scouting News Clips From the ’50s and ’60s Made Available

    If you’ve ever searched through the WSLS-TV news archive, available online at University of Virginia’s website (link: https://explore.lib.virginia.edu/exhibits/show/wsls), you’ll know just how rich this vast treasure can be. When you keyword “scouts” you get an even better treasure: over 40 news videos from the 1950s, 1960s, and a few from the 1970s. These clips have…

  • Hankins Tales:  Remembering Joe Larocco

    Hankins Tales: Remembering Joe Larocco

    (Originally posted to social media on January 19, 2021) My old friend Tom Keeley has posted that he just learned of the death of Joe Larocco. I have not had the chance to verify this information but I have a bad feeling that it is true. There are a number of Staff pictures from Camp…

  • Hankins Tales:  A Grandson in the Wings…

    Hankins Tales: A Grandson in the Wings…

    (Originally posted to social media on January 21, 2021) My son just posted a video to our little family forum that shows my grandson Greyson telling stories at Brady Saunders. He is standing right in front of a firepit that I built many years ago. There is nobody in the audience but that is beside…

  • Hankins Tales:  Zoom Gathering of the ASRPH

    Hankins Tales: Zoom Gathering of the ASRPH

    (Originally posted to social media on February 8, 2021) A bunch of the boys from Camp Powhatan and Ottari got together this weekend to have a zoom meeting. They were all members of ASRPH (American Society of Ridge Pole Hunters) and I am deeply sorry that I was not there. I do not currently have…

  • Hankins Tales:  Summer Camps Face the Pandemic

    Hankins Tales: Summer Camps Face the Pandemic

    (Originally posted to social media on February 17, 2021) Boy Scout Camps across the country are facing the daunting task of trying to salvage something out of this upcoming season. Some of them attempted to open last year only to shut down due to State restrictions. There are so many uncertainties tied into this decision…

  • Hankins Tales:  1968, My First Year on Camp Powhatan Staff

    Hankins Tales: 1968, My First Year on Camp Powhatan Staff

    (Originally posted to social media on March 25, 2021) Once a week we got a night off. It was 1968 at Camp Powhatan and it was my first year on Staff. I was being paid a whopping 15 dollars a week to work in a place that I loved beyond measure. A few of the…

  • Hankins Tales:  Recalling Camp Ottari

    Hankins Tales: Recalling Camp Ottari

    (Originally posted to social media on April 5, 2021) Back in the early 1970s, I was part of a very special group of staff members who reopened Camp Ottari for the first time in a long time. The camp had originally been a patrol cooking camp and it just never took off as expected. By…

“The Natahwop” is an online journal of history for the Scouting programs of the Blue Ridge Mountains Council, BSA (formerly Roanoke Area Council and Piedmont Area Council), including Camp Powhatan, Camp Ottari, High Knoll Trail, and more. The Natahwop and the Roanoke Scouting History Project are supportive of, but not associated with the BRMC, which you can find here.

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