Camp Wolfboro & Baxter Patches

Introduction

Golden Gate Area Council History

The Berkeley Council of the Boy Scouts of America received its charter in 1916, the first Council to receive a charter in Northern California. The Silverado Council was founded a year later in 1917.

In 1932, the expanded Berkeley-Albany Council merged with the Contra Costa Council to become the Berkeley-Contra Costa Council, which was renamed the Mount Diablo Council in 1951. They merged with the Silverado Council in 1992 to become the Mount Diablo Silverado Council (MDSC). In June 2020 the MDSC merged with the Alameda Council and the San Francisco Bay Area Council to become the Golden Gate Area Council (GGAC).

Therefore the Golden Gate Area Council has continuously administered Camp Wolfeboro since its founding in 1928.

Camp Wolfboro Founding

Camp Wolfeboro is currently used for eight weeks each summer as an accredited BSA summer camp, hosting up to 500 Scouts per week, with a total summer attendance of more than 1,600 Scouts; the camp has traditionally relied upon its youth staff to develop and present the "Wolfeboro Rassle" quick skits at each morning's flag assembly to present the week-long theme culminating in a campwide game Thursday, with a concluding skit at the final campfire on Friday evening. Since 2005, the camp has also run an approximately six-week Fall Camp program designed for individual Scout troops and Venturing crews to use the property for rock-climbing, waterfront activities, and shooting sports.

In 1928 the Berkeley Council organized an expedition of Scouts from Troop 24 and two other Berkeley Troops to explore an unchartered portion of the Stanislaus National Forest in the Sierra Nevada mountain range to build the stockade settlement of Wolfboro. The town was to be located on the north side of the Stanislaus River, about two and a half miles from Big Meadows. This great expedition, the biggest thing they had tried yet, was to be an all-night ride on a steamboat "around the horn" of the Contra Costa Hills, just like the old-timers rushed to California around the horn (of South America) in steamboats. After getting off the boat, they planned to go by "covered wagon" behind a forty-horse (power) team up to the townsite. Until the cabins in Wolfboro were completed, the expedition planned to live in army squad tents with wooden floors and housing eight settlers and one guide each. There were three expeditions planned for the summer of 1928: June 4th - 18th, June 18th - July 2nd, and July 2nd to July 16th.

Therefore Camp Wolfboro was founded by the former Berkeley Council in 1928, with Troop 24's Scoutmaster as the first Camp Director, in the area known as Hell's Kitchen, at an elevation of 5500 feet in an 80-acre glacier sand flat across the Stanislaus river from a family-oriented camp, Camp Baxter. Tall lodgepole pines, towering talus slopes, and high granite walls together made up the setting for the majestic surroundings.

Camp Wolfboro Patches (1936-1947)

1936, 1938 - 1944 Annual Patches

1936 is recognized as the year the first attendee patch was offered at Camp Wolfboro, made of white felt printed with black ink. The author has found photos of four separate examples:

Tribute patch produced in 2021 by a current Wolfeboro Staff Member. Unofficial but not technically a counterfeit. Parsons collection.

No evidence has been found that a patch was produced in 1937.

1938 Annual Patch

From $695 sash auction.

This 1938 patch was produced in navy blue felt with gold ink. Jack Bourde collection.

The $695 Sash on eBay

For over a year, this sash has been available for auction on eBay. Clearly the condition of the patches are too poor to warrant the asking price. It includes several examples of the earliest known Camp Wolfboro patches, including 1938, 1939, 1940, and 1941.

We hope that this sash finds its way back to the historians of the Wolfeboro Pioneers for preservation and on display for posterity.

There are only a limited number of these patches left, and high-quality photos (front and back) of these treasures will help this website be a valuable resource for years to come.

1939 Annual Patch

A "Wolf-Burro" under a starry night is packed for an extended expedition.

Jack Bourde collection.

White felt with navy blue ink.https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/boy-scout-1939-camp-wolfboro-1924582766

Some examples of this patch seem to have been printed with navy ink on purple felt, but it is unknown if this was intentional.

From $695 sash auction.

1940 Annual Patch

A wolf is depicted howling at the moon.

Jack Bourde collection.

From $695 sash auction.

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/boyscout-berkeley-contra-costa-mt-1892264856

1941 Annual Patch

A frontiersman is depicted cooking a meal over a campfire.

Reverse of patch at left.

From $695 sash auction.

1942 Annual Patch

In 1942 Camp Wolfboro used a standardized patch design that was used by many BSA camps in the United States. A lone scout in a canoe navigates an alpine lake.

1942 Reverse

1942 "good posture"

On this example the scout appears more upright.

1942

Jack Bourde collection.

Other similarly designed 1940s camp patches at right:

Camp Echo was briefly operated by the Silverado Area Council.

1943 Annual Patch

Another standardized design was used in 1943, depicting the setting sun behind a teepee and two campfires in the forest.
This seems to be a rarer patch than others produced during this period, and the only two examples on the internet are printed with poor detail.

A third patch with felt rockers from the John Shaw collection.(updated April 2021)

Other similarly designed 1940s camp patches

1944 Annual Patch

The first embroidered patch, green and white thread on blue twill. It is theorized that this was also the first year of the Wolfboro Pioneer patch.

1940s Lone Tree Patches at other BSA Camps

In 1945 the official logo of BSA Camp Wolfboro, the "lone tree" design, was adopted. This design was not created in a bubble, for many BSA camps in the late 1940s featured a pine tree as the centerpiece of their patches. However the simplified pine tree with four tiers was easily recognizable and constituted a generic icon that readily identified Camp Wolfboro.

I have only found one other patch with this same 4-tier pine tree; a patch issued in 1943 for Winter Camp at Camp Lowden in Illinois. It is possible that this design directly influenced the designer of Camp Wolfeboro's logo.

Other BSA Camp patches that feature a lone pine tree in their design are shown to the right. Most of these patch designs did not become the official logo for the camp.

Camp Ken-Etiwa-Pec in New Jersey used a lone pine tree from 1937-1965.

1945 - 1947 Camp Wolfboro Lone Tree Patches

In 1945 the official logo of BSA Camp Wolfboro, the "lone tree" design, was introduced as a perennial patch for attendees. The first lone tree patch was embroidered on cloth-backed tan twill and also cloth-backed tan herringbone. All had a green pine tree with "Camp Wolfboro B.S.A." in yellow lettering. The 3-inch diameter red border had a cut edge, which left a small margin of the backing outside the border.

Twill cloth. Stain looks like oil.

Herringbone cloth detail on a Year IV patch.

1945-1947

This example is in the Wolfeboro Pioneers scrapbook.

1945-1947

Note the terracing of the boughs in the green satin stitching. Bourde collection.

1945-1947

Most likely genuine.https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/boy-scout-mt-diablo-council-1950s-1894918831

1945-1947

In the Wolfeboro Pioneers scrapbook.Note that the poor execution of the lettering, the choppy execution of the trunk, and the mis-shapen boughs is not necessarily an indicator of a fake.

1945-1947

These two examples were sold on eBay in February 2025.

1945-1947

The reverse looks like it was sealed somehow.

1945-1947

The second example has a rounder "C" than the other one.

1945-1947

A privilege to see the reverse of an original patch. The seller was in Vacaville, CA.

1945 - 1947 Camp Wolfboro Years II - V Lone Tree Design

Returning campers were given patches with yellow or light brown Roman numerals signifying the number of years a scout attended summer camp.

1945

Given for a camper's 2nd year.In the Wolfeboro Pioneers Scrapbook.

1945

Given for a camper's 3rd year.In the Wolfeboro Pioneers Scrapbook.

1945

Given for a camper's 4th year.In the Wolfeboro Pioneers Scrapbook.

1945

Given for a camper's 5th year.In the Wolfeboro Pioneers Scrapbook.

< 1948

The lettering detail looks correct, the herringbone twill backing is period correct. The large size of the numeral Ⅲ is also correct.Sold alongside a 1941 Camporee patch, listed for $85.00 USD.

Same as at left, reverse

The backing is linen instead of gauze, also consistent with the earliest patches.The same yellow thread was used for both the perimeter lettering and the numeral Ⅲ.

EBay auction listing Feb 2025

Sold for $86.00 USD on eBay in February 2025.

Reverse, Feb 2025

Note the use of herringbone cloth. It is apparent that the roman numeral was embroidered over the top of the full tree stitching instead of incorporated into the design. Bourde collection.

< 1948

Beyond five years, the scouts were given bronze pins that they could affix around the Ⅴ patch. No examples have yet been identified.

< 1948

This patch has a pin-hole in the center of the Ⅴ, indicating that this patch likely had a bronze pin through it.

Camp Baxter c.1926 - 1947

For twenty years there were two Boy Scout camps on Sand Flat. One, of course, was Camp Wolfboro (on the Calaveras County side of the Stanislaus River); the other was Camp Baxter (on the Tuolumne side of the river), which was run by the San Joaquin-Calaveras Council of the B.S.A.

Baxter was founded prior to Wolfboro sometime between 1926 and 1928. The two camps cooperated with each other in true Boy Scout fashion, with Wolfboro controlling Baxter's access to the road, and Baxter controlling Wolfboro's access to the back country. The "Battles of the Stanislaus" were, no doubt, held by the boys of both camps to see who controlled the river.

In 1947 the San Joaquin-Calaveras Council decided to move their camp to a location called Cedar Ridge just outside of Arnold, where it became Camp 49'er. Its former property was absorbed by Camp Wolfboro, whose staff built more campsites there, and remodeled the Camp Baxter dining hall and medical shack into a nature lodge and hike shack.

Jack Bourde collection.

Camp Baxter's patches were relatively small, about 3 inches wide. They were black thread embroidered on either orange or white felt. It appears that the black bars at the bottom of the patch might have designated the number of years an attendee had been to camp.

Camp Baxter Patch, one bar - black thread on orange felt

Camp Baxter Patch, two bars - black thread on orange feltBob Sherman collection

Camp Baxter Patch, three bars -black thread on orange felt and on white felt

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