Historic Trails Award

A unit award, built on a partnership

The members of a unit plan and take part in a historic activity together. The program is built on cooperation with a local historic society, which can suggest trails and sites, provide history, guide restoration and marking work, and sometimes help pay for materials. Contact one as soon as you start planning.

Only chartered units may apply. It is open to Cub Scout, Scouts BSA, Venturing and Sea Scout units, youth and adults.

The three requirements

1. Find and study a historic trail or site. Scouting America keeps an index of BSA historic trails at tap.scouting.org.
2. Hike or camp two days and one night along the trail or near the site. A hotel or another Scout's home also counts.
3. Work with the historic group: restore and mark all or part of the trail or site, or help plan and stage a historic pageant, ceremony or other public event, big enough to merit press coverage.

It does not stack

The application says the award does not apply if any other Scouting America award is available for the trip. Earning it counts as one of the activities for the National Outdoor Badge for Adventure.

What this page is

The Historic Trails Award, drawn so the partnership with a historic society comes first, because the third requirement cannot be done without it. It is not a copy of the requirements: each step is a short label with a link to the official requirements, which are what actually governs.