SWC History
Winter shouldn't keep Scouters indoors.
Some traditions begin with a ceremony. This one began with an argument. A heated exchange at a 1967 Scout roundtable spilled out into the field that January — and Scouters have come back every winter since.
The Starting Point
August 1967
A flyer went out announcing the “First Annual Scouters' Winter Campout” with the understanding that if it went badly, it would also be the last.
At a District Scout roundtable meeting, leaders were handed the coming year's program kits and got to talking about campouts. It became clear that a number of troops simply did not camp in cold weather — they went indoors from November through March, because it was “just too cold to go camping.”
Nobody disputed that sitting around a fire trying to keep your feet from freezing was worse than staying home. What was disputed was whether it had to be that way. Scouting is a year-round program. If every troop waited for warmer weather, some would camp only once or twice a year.
So the roundtable commissioner proposed a campout the coming January, for adult Scouters only, to find out whether they could do what they claimed. The District Camping Committee sanctioned it. A flyer went out announcing the “First Annual Scouters' Winter Campout” with the understanding that if it went badly, it would also be the last.
They reserved Camp Dobbs, on the theory that it ran a little colder than anywhere else nearby. The staff went in Friday night and had a model campsite standing before a single camper arrived. Saturday morning, everyone parked at the top of the hill and packed in to the valley below, choosing their own sites, because where a patrol chose to make camp was part of what the staff had come to judge.
The weather did not cooperate. No rain, no sleet, temperatures in the 40s. For a campout built to prove Scouters could thrive in the cold, a mild weekend was almost an insult. They had fun anyway. Three patrols built pioneering projects and spent all weekend borrowing ideas from one another, each campsite growing more elaborate as the hours passed. The campfire program and cracker barrel were outstanding, and the staff had as good a time as the campers.
When camp broke on Sunday, no one thought this was the end of anything. The next roundtable drew an unusually large turnout, thick with stories for everyone who'd missed it, and one question kept coming up: when's the next one?
They had their answer and proof. This was something worth doing again.
The First Campout
January 1968
The one year it didn't happen
January 1969
At the suggestion of BSA National, the District Camping Committee handed the second campout to two new Scoutmasters, both more than capable. But the 1969 campout never came together, and it was quietly canceled.
A one-year-old tradition had missed a year. Plenty of good ideas die exactly here, in the gap between a promising start and the difficulty of doing it all again.
Thankfully, SWC survived this gap and continued in 1970...and every year since.
The second campout was better than the first, and this time, the cold showed up! Temperatures held around 35 degrees, the activities were more varied, and the staff had to keep improving their model campsite just to stay ahead of the campers. Equipment was still held to what a Scout could find in the official catalog; the founders were firm on that point, believing that if leaders couldn't do it with a Scout's gear, they had no business asking Scouts to.
Two changes made the weekend. Patrols bought and cooked their own food instead of drawing from a common commissary, and the variety of menus turned mealtime into its own kind of lesson. And a new "Campsite Tour" sent every patrol through every other patrol's camp. This turned into an afternoon of shameless idea-stealing that became one of the most valued traditions of the weekend.
The campout wasn't just back. It was learning how to grow.
The Comeback
January 1970
finding its character
January 1971
By the third year, the campout felt permanent enough to start taking a few liberties. The theme was lightweight winter camping, and Bill Barber, set up a "Pack Weigh-In." Every camper's gear went onto a pioneering scale, and patrols earned points for traveling light. Barber also ran a flint-and-steel fire-starting station and made it look effortless.
A determined push was underway to absorb it into the council's formal training program — to turn a weekend of invention into a structured course. The District Camping Committee fought it off. There were already plenty of places to earn a certificate; there was nowhere else a Scouter could test their own ideas in the field with this much freedom. The learning at SWC was real, but it was the kind that happens sideways, when people are having too much fun to notice they're being taught.
When Scouting stops being fun for the Scouts, and for their leaders, everyone finds something else to do.
The founders built the campout to survive its founders, and it has. More than half a century on, patrols still come from across the Southeast every January. Still in costume, still under handmade patrol flags, still competing for the honor of Best Patrol, now carried on as the coveted Honor Patrol title.
The traditions have layered up over the decades. Newcomers earn their first claw and add another for every winter they return, until a full necklace becomes a visual record of the years devoted to this program. Beads mark achievement in the games, in leadership, in showing up and giving it everything. The games themselves have grown from three patrols building pioneering projects into a full slate of original challenges designed fresh each year. Through all of it, the founders' first rule has held: camp by the book, keep it aligned with Scouting values, and never let it stop being fun.
Every claw on every necklace traces back to three patrols, one mild weekend, and a group of Scouters who refused to wait for spring.
The Tradition Endures
1972 - Today
the story continues
SWC #59
January 2027
This January, Scouters gather again at Woodruff Scout Reservation for the 59th Scouters' Winter Campout — Lead On! A Scouter's Life for Me.
Each year brings a new theme, new games, new faces in the patrols. The same reason remains behind it all: to swap roles for a weekend, camp the way our Scouts do, and remember exactly why we signed up to lead.
The argument that started it was settled a long time ago. Winter has never kept these Scouters indoors since.
The Future of SWC
May it live forever.
The Scouters' Winter Campout was the work of many hands, but it had one tireless champion. Homer Powell was the roundtable commissioner who turned a cold-weather argument into a campout and spent the rest of his life making sure it endured. He was always quick to give the credit away:
"Although I am sometimes given credit for starting the SWC, in reality it was the result of the efforts of a number of dedicated Scouters who wanted to reinforce Scouting's Outdoor Program. Cobb District has always had some of the most dedicated and talented Scouters in the world. It is not surprising that the Scouters' Winter Campout had its beginning here."
When Homer moved to Florida in the 1980s, he carried the idea with him and started a winter campout for the leaders in his new district. He came home for nearly every Cobb SWC until his passing in September 2001. His charge to the Scouters who would follow him:"The Scouters' Winter Campout. May it live forever!"
We intend to. Fifty-nine winters and counting.