Chester County Council

Chester County Council #539
Owner	Scouting America
Headquarters	Oscar Lasko PARC
Location	Exton, Pennsylvania
Country	United States
Founded	January 17, 1919; 106 years ago (1919-01-17)
Founder	Arthur A. Schuck
President	Steve Carroll
Commissioner	Gus Sauerzopf
Scout Executive	Jake Segal[1]
Website www.cccbsa.org
Scouting portal

Chester County Council is a Scouting America service council that serves members of the Cub Scouts, Scouts BSA, and Venturing programs in Chester County, Pennsylvania and Northeastern Cecil County, Maryland. It is one of the oldest councils in the nation, and is one of two single-county councils left in Pennsylvania, the other being Chief Cornplanter Council in Warren, PA.

The council is administratively divided into three districts:

• Diamond Rock District
• Horseshoe Trail District
• Octoraro District

The Chester County Council was charted by the Boy Scouts of America on January 17th, 1919. It was charged with overseeing scouting in Chester County under the leadership of Dr. Arthur A. Schuck, who later became the third Chief Scout Executive of Scouting America and who had previously been Deputy Chief Scout Executive under Dr. James West. The council spent much of its early years in the wake of the armistice ending World War I consolidating independent troops into the organization.^[2]

In the 1920s, the council, under the leadership of Scout Executive Charles Heistand, underwent significant growth that resulted in the acquisition of a new Scout camp and the formation of its own Order of the Arrow lodge. Initially, Scouts attending summer camp were loaded up onto military trucks, and then shipped out to Camp Rothrock, the council's old summer camp property located near Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The council longed for a camp closer to home, and in 1927 acquired the Reynolds Farm property on the Mason–Dixon line near Rising Sun, Maryland. The new camp, Camp Horseshoe, opened its doors in 1928 and the property was renamed Horseshoe Scout Reservation.^[3]

Since the opening of the camp and the founding of the OA lodge in 1927, the council borders have gradually expanded, eventually extending down into Cecil County, Maryland. In 2021, the council established the Oscar Lasko Program, Activity & Resource Campus (PARC) in Exton, Pennsylvania and moved its headquarters to the building the same year.^[4]

Chester County Council operates two camps, Camp Horseshoe and Camp John H. Ware 3rd. Together the camps constitute Horseshoe Scout Reservation. The council also maintains the Oscar Lasko Program, Activity & Resource Campus as its headquarters in Exton, Pennsylvania.^[5]

Octoraro Lodge 22 is the Order of the Arrow lodge affiliated with Chester County Council.^[6] Its purpose is to support camping in the Horseshoe Scout Reservation in the Chester County Council. The lodge, which takes its name from the Octoraro Creek that flows around Horseshoe Scout Reservation, uses the Canada goose as its "totem" or symbol.^[7]

Because of the council's history, members have gone onto higher office at the Area, Regional, and National levels of Scouting America. A list of those who served at the national level, or in public office, is listed below.

• Bill Folger – President of the American Society For The Adoption Of The Metric System
• Arthur A. Schuck – 1st Scout Executive, later the third Chief Scout Executive of Scouting America
• Hon. Owen J. Roberts – Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
• Hon. John H. Ware, III – U.S. Congressman from Oxford
• Dick Vermeil – retired NFL coach and member of the council's executive board. His annual "Dick Vermeil Invitational" golf tournaments bring in over $1 million each year to help with council operations.

• Scouting in Pennsylvania

• Media related to Chester County Council at Wikimedia Commons
• Chester County Council Website
• Horseshoe Scout Reservation Website
• Horseshoe Scout Reservation Alumni Association Website