June 26, 1919
A caravan of motor trucks carrying a total of 50 specially selected boy scouts headed out of Akron, Ohio, for a journey of about 2,000 miles (3,218.7 kilometers) through nine states altogether. This Wednesday departure from northeastern Ohio’s Summit County marked the start of what Vehicle Monthly magazine characterized as “one of the most unique motor-truck camping trips ever attempted in America.” The headline for a Motor Age magazine article about the trip announced “Tour Deluxe for Boy Scouts.”
Joseph W. Taylor, scout executive for Summit County, served as the leader of this expedition. It was sponsored by the Akron-based Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. Frank W. Litchfield, the company’s vice president, was president of the Akron Boy Scout Council at the time. The Akron Beacon focused on those eagle scouts taking part in the tour. The newspaper specifically identified them as “Harold Travers, holder of a life saver medal from the national court of honor; Rodney Sutton; Akron’s first Eagle Scout; Kenneth Mason, Robert Dietzold, Edgar Taylor, Leon Rickert and Roger Shaffner.” Other individuals participating in the expedition included scout leaders under Taylor’s command as well as mechanics and at least one physician.
This Boy Scouts truck tour was the second one in the Akron area to be led by Taylor and sponsored by Goodyear. The first expedition had taken place in July of the previous year, with Goodyear trucks taking the scouts and other passengers through Ohio, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. (While the accompanying photo appeared in a Vehicle Monthly article about the 1919 expedition, it was actually taken during the previous year’s trip.) The distinctions made between the 1918 and 1919 tours included the fact that the latter would visit more of New England; and the extra advantage that a movie camera would be used the second time around to capture various highlights on film.
The 1919 trip was marketed as an opportunity for the scouts to see other parts of the United States while also promoting their organization. There was yet another reason, however, for this so-called “motor hike.” This objective, as summarized in the Montana-based Great Falls Daily Tribune, was for the caravan to serve as a “demonstration to the government of the possibilities of transporting troops from the interior of the country to the seacoast, by motor truck, in times of emergency.” In this respect, the expedition was a junior version of the better known U.S. Army Transcontinental Motor Convey that — 11 days after the scouts rolled out of Akron — left Washington, DC, for a 62-day-long trek to San Francisco.
Four large trucks were ultimately deployed for the 1919 journey between Akron and Boston. Three of these vehicles transported the scouts and most of the other passengers, while the fourth one was outfitted to serve as both a kitchen and pantry. Goodyear provided drivers for each of the trucks. In addition, a five-passenger Packard Roadster automobile served as the caravan’s pilot car. The expedition lasted 17 days altogether and took the party through New York, all of the New England states, and Pennsylvania before returning to Ohio for the end of what the Great Falls Daily Tribune called a “most extraordinary boy scout hike.”
The Akron Beacon Journal reported, “The caravan traveled by day and camped at night. Two nights were spent in barns when it was too wet to pitch shelter tents.” This newspaper added, “Two nights the boys slept on Revere beach near Boston with the ocean lapping their feet.”
With Akron and Boston as the endpoints for this journey, the party also visited the following cities:
- Erie in Pennsylvania;
- Buffalo, Syracuse, Utica, Albany, Glen’s Falls, Plattsburgh, Elmira, Jamestown, Newburgh, Binghamton, and Ithaca in New York;
- Burlington in Vermont;
- Portsmouth in New Hampshire;
- Portland in Maine;
- Gloucester, Worcester, and Springfield in Massachusetts;
- Hartford in Connecticut; and
- Youngstown in Ohio.
“All along the entire route of their trip the boys were greeted with demonstration by native Scout Councils while the newspapers gave them generous write-ups with pictures,” recounted the Akron Beacon Journal. “Chief Scout Taylor declared the trip was more interesting than a year ago and would be a great help in furthering the boy scout work in this country.”
Photo Credit: Public Domain
For more information on the 1919 Boy Scouts truck tour between Akron and Boston, please check out Scouts to Take Annual Motor Hike — Sacramento Daily Union 22 June 1919
Transportation History 
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