1962 – Hiking Shiloh National Military Park, TN

This “post-camp” hike was a little bigger deal than the DeSoto Trail hike, and though some of the same boys participated, it was fewer because it was more expensive and further away and beginning to conflict with pre-school sports and other activities. The photos show 5 boys besides me and they would not have all fit into my little Metropolitan, so maybe one of them drove or a parent, I just don’t remember now.

There are actually more than one trail to hike at the Shiloh Military Park for Boy Scouts but they are not operated by the National Park Services nor Boy Scouts of America but by a private organization in Memphis evidently approved by the BSA and NPS. Because we were there for the Centennial Year of the battle, we did a basic battlefield hike of all the major monuments with special Centennial Medal and patch.

The Shiloh National Park has a Boy Scout Hiking Page and another  “Scout Guidelines” Page which probably means they get lots of enquiries. But in addition they direct you to the private organization page www.shilohmilitarytrails.org where you get maps, forms, booklets, and information on the 9 hikes before you can request patches and medals. Of course everything costs, so it is a private money-making enterprise, much bigger now than it was back then, but I suspect just as much if not more interest in the civil war today.

Things were looser then or we were on our own more and told it was okay to campout or sleep next to the park alongside the Tennessee River. I think we ate out and didn’t cook a meal there but slept under the stars and some boys swam in the river. Today on that private Shiloh Military Trails page they provide a list of official campgrounds nearby (at a cost) and motels where you can stay. They don’t rough it today like we did then! 🙂

Acrylic painting by Wayne Johnston in appreciation of taking him and others on the Shiloh Military Trail at the end of the summer in 1962. He sent me this painting for Christmas that year.

And there is a Photo Gallery on this Hike

with larger files to copy or print.

¡Pura Vida!