Mounted Boy Scout Troop 290

[SawyerTed]

In the 1950's Ocracoke Village on the NC Outer Banks had one of a handful of mounted scout troops in the world.

The boys captured and broke some of the herd of wild ponies that lived on the island. At one time there were ponies that roamed all the barrier island along with other feral livestock that arrived there through various ways. 

Many of those scouts are in their 80s now and sadly some have inevitably passed in.

Rudy Austin was one of those scouts who later served in the Air Force, was an engineer on dredges that served the NC coast and later he became a NC DOT ferry captain.  I came to know him when I was volunteering at Portsmouth across the inlet from Ocracoke.  Captain Austin operated one of the small passenger ferries that takes visitors to Portsmouth.  

Rudy was featured in the cover of Boys Life magazine and is pictured here on Diablo, his horse.  


Sadly, my friend, Rudy Austin died last Thursday.  He was among the finest men I've ever known.  Going to miss him.  

[Old Greenhorn]

Ted, I am sorry for your loss of a friend of such caliber. Such a colorful and full life that gentleman had. With a lifetime in Scouting I had no knowledge of these mounted Troops. Very interesting indeed. He sounds lie a very neat and interesting person. a Long Life, well lived. My condolences, but I am very glad you got to know him a little and share that with the rest of us.

[Jeff]

Thankyou for the opportunity to know and learn about your friend Ted.

[NewYankeeSawmill]

Thanks for sharing! My oldest was in scouts up until 18, it was a very positive experience for him. When we moved he went from troop 99 to 101.

[doc henderson]

That is so cool!

[SawyerTed]

I'm a firm believer in well run youth organizations.  Scouts, Explorers, Junior Firefighters. FFA, Skills USA (VICA), 4-H, Key Club and so forth.  The clubs and organizations provide experiences that help children grow in positive ways most parents can't provide alone. 

For some children sports fit the bill, for others it's band or orchestra, for some it's theater, and for others it's vocational education. 

Places like isolated Ocracoke probably benefited from those organizations from the early days in great measure because young people stayed in the community.  On an island of a few hundred permanent residents, the leaders who emerged later shaped their community into a unique blend of vacation destination and a great place to live. 

To be certain there are similar community experiences all over our country. We shouldn't forget the youth organizations need to be sponsored and led by adults with interest in creating community.  Im afraid we are losing the idea of community in our culture.

[NewYankeeSawmill]

Im afraid we are losing the idea of community in our culture.

At the risk of segueing the conversation, I agree.
Something I've noticed that changed in my 51 laps around the sun... Nobody is just "An American" anymore. Everyone, no matter the stripe, is an "Adjective-American" now. Maybe its African American, Spanish American, Muslim American, Irish American, heck, some southerner's don't even want to identify as American, we're Texans! People are choosing to identify with their social group first, their country of origin second (or third, fourth, fifth...) If you're LGBTQ your nationality doesn't matter, people of the same social group will identify with you and your life-choices over your/their nationality every single time.
Every person identifies as something else first, as an adjective to their status as an American. If people started to identify as American's w/ a heritage of one sort or another, I think things would look very different in our country today.