About Us:

The Chickasaw Council was established in 1916 to oversee the many Scout troops organized in Memphis after the founding of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) in 1910. Established to “promote…the ability of boys to do things for themselves and others, to train them in Scoutcraft, and to teach them patriotism, courage, self-reliance, and kindred virtues….” The BSA soon emerged as the nation’s leading youth organization and Memphis was one of the most important Scouting communities in the United States. In order to provide a suitable place for Council Scouts to learn the values of Scouting, the council’s first president, investment banker Bolton Smith, donated land for a Council Summer Camp in Hardy, Arkansas, which opened in 1917 and was christened Kamp Kia Kima. A second camp, named for Elizabeth Currier of Geneva, Switzerland, was opened in nearby Eudora, Mississippi in 1925.