Since this is National Girl Scout Month, we thought this was a good story to share with everyone. There is a real Knoxville connection. "Izzie" was Elizabeth Ijams the daughter of Mr. And Mrs. Harry Ijams. She was a member of Mohican Troop 8 by 1923. There were one-day camps weekly at the Bird Preserve at the Harry Ijams house. This became Ijams Nature Center. Mrs. Harry Ijams joined the first Girl Scout Council in Knoxville in 1923. In Jan. 1930 Elizabeth Ijams, daughter of Mr.and Mrs. Harry Ijams, was hired as director of Knoxville council and later director in Nashville and then on to National. Mrs. W.E. Ijams was very active in GS, Her father, Col. Townsend, donated property of a GS camp in the Smokeys. After the gov. wanted the land for the national park, this camp became Camp Tremont.

The story we have posted on Fay's Page My Life: Girl Scout Stories ((link...) page 3) is really a combination of three stories from the decade of the late 40's to late 50's in racially divided Tennessee. It shows the courage and strength of the Girl Scouts of that era, and the former Honorary Chairman of Girl Scouts Eleanor Roosevelt, in confronting the evils of segregation and real threat the White Separatist Movement and the Klan posed.

The book And "The Fence Came Down" by Joyce Maienschein and Eileen Neiler is the source for the Oak Ridge, TN part of the story. It is just one of the many topics addressed by this terrific and informative book.

We have learned this week thanks to Kathy Marino of Girl Scouts of North-Central Alabama, that the Dismals Camp which was run by the Golden Eaglets in 20's and 30's still exists, but as a private park. There are lots of photos of the park. A link has been added to the section on the Dismals on Fay's Page (page 1). It is hard to imagine the girls climbing up and down a 40' rope ladder to get to their camp, but the ladder is shown hanging from the side of a cliff in the picture of the camp from the old magazine article (under Item #4, page 1). It was obviously quite an honor to be selected to be a Dismalite.

Hope you find this story and information interesting.

FYI: The Owensboro Fine Art Museum, Owensboro, KY, which has just joined Art Museum Touring.com. ((link...)), has extended their exhibition, CROSSROADS: Spirituality in American Folk Traditions, until March 16.

Sherrie

Art Museum Touring.com
sherrie@artmuseumtouring.com

P.S. Don't forget your cookies! My favorite is the Trefoils