Years ago while visiting Colorado Springs, we came upon a monument to honor the 50th anniversary of the Boy Scouts. They had their Jamboree in Colorado Springs that year. We have a picture of my son, who at the time was a Boy Scout, next to the monument. Fast forward 18 years, I have moved to the Springs and my son, who is now a Boy Scout Leader, came to visit and wanted to find the monument to take another picture as it is the Boy Scouts 100th anniversary. We were told it was in the parking lot of a store on Jamboree Circle. We searched for almost an hour and could not find it. Could you please tell us exactly where it is.
— Pat Sonzogni
ANSWER: You were close — and Jamboree seemed the obvious choice – but you needed to go to the intersection of Voyager and Briargate parkways. It’s in the same area as the statues of the Briargate horses and is a boulder with a plaque.
Because of your question and since Mayor Lionel Rivera has declared 2010 “The Year of the Boy Scouts” in Colorado Springs, honoring the 100th anniversary, it was fun taking a look back at the Jamboree.
It was July 22-29, 1960 and was on thousands of acres that were north of the city at that time, near the Air Force Academy.
Scouts from every state and 38 countries, 55,600 strong, turned this temporary tent city — which included a 60-acre field hospital — into the fourth largest city in Colorado. Toward the end of the Jamboree, another 25,000 were on site for Parents’ Day.
Scouts cooked their meals over charcoal fires and the Gazette Telegraph reported there were 16,000 campfires going at once. More than 1,278,000 meals were prepared during the event.
Among the celebrities who visited the site: James Arness, Marshal Matt Dillon of “Gunsmoke” and President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
A special treat for the Scouts was a full-fledged rodeo by the local Pikes Peak or Bust Rodeo crew.
Colorado Springs sale shoppers were in for a treat after the incredible tent city turned back into a ranch and acres of open land. In August 1960 Ross Auction had a super-duper auction of thousands and thousands of tents, benches, cooking utensils and much, much more.
The Jamboree was the second Scout event in our area. A year before, in 1959, thousands of Girls Scouts had been camped south of that area for the Senior Scout Roundup.
We’re guessing there are quite a number of people who remember the Jamboree and Roundup.
__
Send questions to linda.navarro@gazette.com with “Column Question” in the subject line to avoid spam; mail to “Did You Ever Wonder?,” P.O. Box 1779, Colorado Springs 80901. Queries must be signed.



