The Best Way to Spend 10 Days

Ahh… Summer Camp.

Ask anyone in Troop 318 or across the Heart of America Council why they return to camp every summer, and they’ll tell you the same thing: the H. Roe Bartle Scout Reservation feels like home — a place that calls them back year after year. Once your Scout experiences Bartle, he’ll want to go back too!

Each summer, Troop 318 spends 10 days and 9 nights at the H. Roe Bartle Scout Reservation, located near Osceola, Missouri (technically Iconium, but with an Osceola address). Scouts enjoy the “luxuries” of nature — heat, bugs, rocks, dirt, dust, mud, rain, and sleeping in canvas tents — but most importantly, they experience the time of their lives.

The H. Roe Bartle Scout Reservation, affectionately known as Bartle, is made up of three separate camps: Lone Star, Sawmill, and Piercing Arrow. Each has its own dining hall, pool, campsites, and merit badge programs.

Bartle’s history stretches back to 1929, when then–Kansas City Mayor H. Roe Bartle (yes — that Bartle, namesake of Bartle Hall) founded Camp Osceola. As attendance grew, a second camp was added in 1955, and the original camp (Camp Osceola) became Camp A while the new camp was Camp B. These later became Camp Wigwam and Camp Sawmill, respectively. Continued growth led to the opening of a third camp in 1962, originally named Camp Frontier.

When beloved camp leader Wallace “Pappy” Grube passed away, Camp Wigwam was renamed Camp Lone Star in his honor. Years later, Camp Frontier became Camp Piercing Arrow to honor Paul D. Ahrend.

Each camp has its own naming theme:

• Lone Star campsites are named after Native American tribes.

• Sawmill campsites are named after trees and honor the camp’s original sawmill.

• Piercing Arrow campsites are named after American forts.

There’s so much to see and do at Bartle that the only true way to appreciate it is to experience it firsthand.

And here’s a fun fact: H. Roe Bartle, founder of our beloved Scout Reservation, was also Mayor of Kansas City, Missouri — and he’s the man who helped bring a professional football team to the city: the Kansas City Chiefs!

Can you hear them? The Hills of Osceola are calling.
Will you answer?