Fleeting Memories

Our scoutmaster Bert Whitney took us on many different activities. One was to the Potosi Mine. We drove from Boulder City, Nevada to the edge of where Las Vegas is now. There we left the main road that went to California and headed up into the mountains near there.  I’m pretty sure I could not find the road now, but the scoutmaster knew where it was. I think that he spent a great deal of time out in the desert looking around. He lived near there with his family when he was fairly young. We drove through the desert for a ways and came to the backside of a mountain. The car was parked, and we started up a trail to the opening of the mine. It was quite a hike for me and for some of the other Scouts, but it seemed easy for our scoutmaster. We finally all arrived partway up the mountain to the front of a large opening into the mine. The hike up had been hot and somewhat hard, but as soon as we arrived in front of the mine, there was nice cool air coming out. We went back into the mi...

When I was about thirteen years old, I got to go on a Scout troop trip to Mt. Whitney. I was one of the younger ones and excited to go for a few days. We were going to hike up to a place called Peanut Lake. It was quite a hike. The mountain was right next to where the Scoutmaster’s brother lived in California. Our Scoutmaster was Bert Whitney and his brother that lived very near the trail head was Howard. Ellice Henrie Whitney One the way there I had ripped out the whole backside of my Scout pants. It was pretty bad. I had torn them out along the seam. When we got there, Howard’s wife Ellice said she would sew them up for me. We went to the back room, and she had me go into the closet and hand my pants out. This was alright, but a little embarrassing. I took my pants off and handed them to her with the door just barely ajar. I think that she thought that it was funny about how timid or embarrassed I felt. She took the pants to the sewing machine and was able to fix them quick...

I didn’t really go far in the Scouting program, but I do remember the Scout law. I often used it in the classroom. At some point during the school year I would give the classes a test with an answer sheet to fill in the blanks a,b,c,d, for the answers. When it was time to start the class, I would tell them to clear their desks and get out a pen or pencil. I would then pass out the test and an answer sheet. I would give them time to finish the test and then I would collect them all. After school I would go down to the workroom and make a copy of each answer sheet. The next day I would pass them back to the students and have them correct their own tests. I would read out the correct answers while they checked their sheets. I would then look at the copies I had made and staple them to the original answer sheets. The next day I would pass both sheets back to the class. I asked them to look over the two answer sheets. I wanted them to see for themselves if any answers had been chang...

Our Scoutmaster had arranged for the troop to go down to San Diego and visit an aircraft carrier. The carrier was called the USS Boxer. It was named after a ship captured from the British in the war of 1812. There had been five other ships with that name prior to the aircraft carrier being commissioned with that name. Carl James Stubbs and Rose Carolyn Stubbs, 1957 When it came time for us to go, the Scoutmaster was not available to take us. Bert Whitney, now Bishop Bert Whitney was no longer the Scoutmaster. I’m not sure who it was; I think maybe Bro. Rowley. The young men from the troop who were able to go were the following: Rulon Gibson, Harvey Boyce, and I. We were feeling bad about missing the chance to go on board an aircraft carrier. As the time drew near, my mother Rose Carolyn Stubbs, went to Skippy Barnson, a car dealer, and borrowed a car. With Mom as our driver, we were off to San Diego for a rendezvous with the Wasp class warship. It was quite exciting to even...

4 The Tall, the Short, the Skinny, the Fat, the Good and the Bad This US Park Service picture was taken of Fortification looking West, from the Nevada side. We hiked up the area on the right side shown on the picture and then over to the other side where the lake and dam are. Fortification Mountain stands above Lake Mead and Hoover Dam. It is, as far as I can remember, a volcanic mountain. Our Scoutmaster decided to take us on a hike up the side of the mountain to the top. It was a very difficult hike. I had felt like the trail to the base of the mountain was probably far enough and difficult enough for me and possibly for the rest of the troop. As long as the Scoutmaster was staying ahead of us, we really had no choice but to follow. Up the steep mountain we went. It was a difficult climb, but as we stopped to rest and look out at the lake and the road up to Boulder City, we could see a very beautiful sight. The lake was still; there was no wind. It looked like glass. ...

Another story from the list Boulder Beach--this may not be one of your favorite stories, but it is one of mine. As a twelve-year-old I was introduced into the official Boy Scouts of America. We had a scoutmaster that took us on a number of outings and was, I would say, faithful to his calling. He got us all together and we ended up at Boulder Beach on Lake Mead. It took several cars to get us all down there, about five miles. We set up our camps and then got ready to go swimming. Our scoutmaster made an attempt to keep the younger scouts safe from the bullying of the older scouts. To accomplish this, we had set up our camp a little way away from the older scouts. The sixteen-year-old scouts made their camp on the side closest to the water and the fourteen-year-old scouts set up on the high side from the water. Separating the two older groups was a ravine that the water had cut through part of the whole camp. Bert Whitney and two older brothers Howard and Calvin We had a g...