For approximately half a century, Region 12—usually written Region XII in contemporary records—connected the local councils of the Pacific Southwest with the national organization of the Boy Scouts of America. Its work included developing councils, supporting professional and volunteer leadership, encouraging camping, coordinating training, and organizing participation in national and international events.
Southern California, Southern Nevada, and Arizona formed a particularly important part of that territory. Their councils shared regional personnel, conferences, programs, and organizational relationships long before the creation of the Western Region and its Area 4.
Region 12 also developed a recognizable identity of its own. Its name appeared on insignia, conference materials, awards, and souvenirs. The motto “Siempre Adelante”—“Always Forward”—expressed that regional identity and survives on its memorabilia.1
Origins and Territory
The twelve-region system emerged during the BSA’s expansion after World War I. Contemporary and later histories sometimes assign different dates to its establishment. A historical timeline published by the BSA in January 1924 places the redistricting into twelve regions in 1920, while numerous later accounts use 1921. These dates reflect the system’s development and formal identification during the 1920–1921 period.2
The regional arrangement broadly followed the geography of the Federal Reserve districts, although Scouting’s boundaries should not be assumed to have matched the banking districts exactly. Its purpose was practical: the growing number of local councils required assistance and coordination beyond what the national office could conveniently provide directly.3
A December 1921 report described Region 12 as comprising California, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and the Hawaiian Islands. Later reports also included part of Wyoming. Hawaii was therefore part of the region while still a United States territory, decades before statehood.4
Regional geography was expressed through council territories as well as state names. Councils could cross state boundaries, making it misleading to reconstruct their relationships solely from a modern state map. The Colorado River corridor provides an especially useful example: Southern Nevada, northwestern Arizona, southeastern California, and the Imperial–Yuma country had administrative connections that crossed those boundaries.
The regional office was based in Los Angeles for much of Region 12’s history. The existing archival notes for this page identify its address in August 1924 as the Merchants National Bank Building and its May 1935 address as the Haas Building.5
Building the Councils of the Southwest
Early newspaper reports show regional leadership actively developing the council system.
In December 1921, Regional Executive Charles N. Miller described new organizations throughout Southern California. Pomona had established a first-class council with a professional executive. Glendale, Burbank, and Eagle Rock had organized together and were seeking an executive. Work was also proceeding around Venice and Redondo. Imperial County was preparing its organization, while San Bernardino remained another major area requiring further development.6
The same report named members of a new regional committee drawn from several communities. Southern California representatives included Stuart W. French of Pasadena, Duncan MacKinnon of San Diego, and Malcolm McNaghten of Los Angeles; J. E. Thompson represented Phoenix. The committee illustrates how regional administration brought civic leaders from different councils into a shared organization.7
Arizona became an early focus of regional fieldwork. In February 1922, Riverside County Scout Executive C. J. Carlson prepared to leave his council position and become a deputy regional executive. A contemporary announcement described plans for Carlson and Miller to travel to Prescott and begin an extensive organizing campaign. Carlson expected to spend March working in Arizona before receiving further assignments elsewhere in the Southwest.8
These accounts help explain what a region actually did. Regional personnel visited communities, supported council formation, recruited leadership, and worked with local executives. Their responsibilities extended beyond conducting large gatherings or issuing insignia.
Professional and Volunteer Leadership
Region 12 operated through both professional executives and volunteer leadership. Contemporary newspapers distinguish the regional executive from regional chairmen, committee members, and section officers.
Charles N. Miller and C. J. Carlson
Charles N. Miller was directing regional work by 1921. His reports document a period when many of the councils later familiar to Southern California Scouters were still being established or reorganized.
By January 1927, C. J. Carlson had become his successor. The Los Angeles Examiner announced a welcoming luncheon and identified Carlson’s previous experience as Riverside Scout Executive, assistant regional executive, and Long Beach Scout Executive. Miller was moving to a national field assignment.9
Carlson’s regional service occurred in two separate periods. A biography published during his lifetime records his transfer to Region 7 in Chicago in 1937, his return to Region 12 in 1945, and his retirement on September 1, 1948.10
Raymond O. Hanson
Raymond O. Hanson belongs in Region 12’s leadership history between Carlson’s assignments.
On February 24, 1938, the San Pedro News-Pilot announced that Hanson, previously Scout Executive of San Francisco Council, had been appointed regional executive. The report identified his territory as California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and Hawaii.11
Other reports show Hanson’s administration building its regional organization. In April 1938, Imperial Valley Scouter R. P. Moore received an appointment to the regional executive committee for Southern California and Arizona in a letter from Hanson. That notice supplies a direct connection between regional leadership and an established volunteer in the desert Southwest.12
Don Moyer and Walter Whidden
Don Moyer succeeded Carlson in 1948. That October, the Chico Record described him as the newly appointed regional executive when he arrived to help plan a regional professional conference at Camp Lassen. The planning committee included executives from several California councils, among them Tallman Trask of Pasadena and Walter Whidden of Sacramento.13
In November 1960, the Gardena Valley News announced Whidden’s appointment following Moyer’s death. It identified Whidden as an Eagle Scout from Santa Paula and a University of Southern California alumnus. His professional experience included assignments in Ventura, Long Beach, Berkeley, Reno, Sacramento, and Region 11.14
The executive succession can therefore be summarized as follows, with Hanson’s precise beginning and ending dates still requiring additional personnel documentation:
Executive |
Documented period or appointment |
|---|---|
Charles N. Miller |
Directing Region 12 by 1921; succeeded by Carlson by January 1927 |
C. J. Carlson |
First term beginning in 1926–1927; transferred to Chicago in 1937 |
Raymond O. Hanson |
Appointment reported in February 1938 |
C. J. Carlson |
Returned in 1945; retired September 1, 1948 |
Don Moyer |
Appointed in 1948; served until his death in 1960 |
Walter R. Whidden |
Appointed in 1960; led the region during its final era |
These professional appointments should be kept distinct from the region’s volunteer officers, whose titles included chairman and vice chairman.
Numbered Sections Within Region 12
Contemporary newspapers establish that Region 12 had numbered BSA sections grouping local councils. These were administrative and service relationships, distinct from the lettered OA areas familiar to lodge historians.
The surviving examples do not yet establish a complete section map for every year. They do, however, provide firm evidence for several designations and their work.
Section 1: Southern California Council Cooperation
In August 1963, the La Habra Star announced a commissioners’ conference representing Section 1 of Region 12. More than two hundred commissioners were expected at the Riverside County Sheriff’s Training Center. Riverside County Commissioner Harry Bristol supervised the meeting, and Northern Orange County Council planned a substantial delegation.15
Another report from that year described council officers from San Bernardino, Riverside, Redlands, Pomona, Santa Ana, and Northern Orange County meeting under section chairman Owen K. Burman of Corona. Regional vice chairman Edward Mills and deputy regional executive Dave Martin also attended. Their agenda included the regional annual meeting, the 1964 National Jamboree, and camping activities in Mexico.16
Together, the reports reveal an active layer of cooperation among neighboring councils. Commissioners, presidents, and executives could address common needs without requiring every matter to become a full regional gathering.
Section 3: Central California and the Central Coast
A February 1964 appointment notice provides an unusually specific description of Section 3.
Elwood J. Wilson of Monterey became its chairman, leading volunteer Scouters associated with councils headquartered in Stockton, Bakersfield, Santa Barbara, Salinas, Visalia, San Luis Obispo, Fresno, and Modesto. Regional chairman Edward Mills announced the appointment.17
This grouping is particularly relevant to the northern edge of Area 4 History’s interests. Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo participated in a BSA field section whose geography differed from the later Western Region Area 4 arrangement.
Section 5: Northern California and Nevada
In June 1967, a Sonoma-Mendocino Council report identified eight councils in a Northern California–Nevada grouping as Section Five of Region 12. The article compared local membership growth with the section and the larger region.18
Besides documenting the designation, the report shows another section function: providing a useful grouping for evaluating council progress.
Section 7: Arizona and the Desert Southwest
A January 1968 announcement of Desert Trails Council’s annual recognition banquet identified Fred H. Knowles of Phoenix as vice chairman of Section 7, Region 12. Knowles was scheduled to install the council’s officers and executive board at the meeting in Yuma.19
An earlier report supplies a broader geographic description. In March 1956, the Calexico Chronicle identified P. R. Campbell as chairman of the region’s Arizona, Southern Nevada, and Imperial Valley section. He participated in Imperial-Yuma Council’s recognition banquet and Silver Beaver presentations.20
The two notices document a desert Southwest field organization and a later Section 7 officer. They do not, by themselves, establish an unchanged boundary between 1956 and 1968.
OA “Area 7” and Area 12-F
The OA’s use of “Area 7 of Region 12” deserves attention alongside these BSA section references.
Before its full integration into the BSA, the Order of the Arrow used its own national system of areas. By 1942, Region 12’s OA territory was associated with Area U. In August 1946, that designation was divided into Areas 12-A, 12-B, and 12-C. The OA’s national history describes further alignment with the twelve-region structure in 1948.21
Later growth produced additional OA areas. The desert Southwest grouping known as Area 12-F also used the designation Area 7 of Region 12 in its early years. Section histories preserve that usage, including its appearance on conference insignia before the 12-F designation became standard locally.22
The BSA’s documented Section 7 provides a plausible administrative context for that terminology. However, the available evidence does not yet prove precisely when the OA adopted the number or whether its membership always matched the BSA section’s councils.
For historical identification, three different terms must therefore be distinguished: BSA Region 7, BSA Section 7 within Region 12, and OA Area 7 within Region 12. Similar numbering does not make them the same organization.
Southern Nevada and Arizona in Regional Operations
Regional reporting helps recover the importance of councils beyond the large Southern California population centers.
In March 1951, the Needles Desert Star reported that Boulder Dam Area Council had led the region’s councils in organizing new packs, troops, and Explorer units during 1950. Deputy Regional Executive Jay W. Clements presented the comparison at a meeting held at Las Vegas’s Hotel Last Frontier.
Council president Rex Bell presided over a gathering that included leaders from several communities. Reports addressed camping, advancement, training, finance, and organization. Kingman, Arizona, appeared alongside Las Vegas, Boulder City, and other participating communities, demonstrating the council’s cross-border character.23
Imperial-Yuma Council provides a comparable example farther south. Its 1956 banquet brought together leaders from California’s Imperial Valley and the Yuma area. The program combined local recognitions with regional participation and a national training speaker. Reports included summer camping, an Explorer river expedition, and other activities serving communities on both sides of the state line.24
Such accounts show that the region’s desert territory was an active part of its administration. Regional representatives visited local councils, installed officers, evaluated progress, and helped connect volunteers with wider Scouting resources.
Training, Camping, and Regional Conferences
Training was a recurring regional responsibility, reaching professional employees, commissioners, unit leaders, and older Scouts.
The Camp Lassen conference planned in 1948 was expected to bring approximately 250 Scout executives together the following May. Its planners emphasized new Scouting techniques. According to the Chico Record, the gathering would be the first regional conference since 1927 held in a camp rather than the customary hotel setting.25
Southern California also hosted specialized regional programs. A 1947 air encampment at March Field planned instruction for Senior Scouts, including Air Scouts, Sea Scouts, and Explorers. Army Air Forces personnel were to teach navigation, instruments, engines, and related subjects, while the American Red Cross supplied first-aid and lifesaving instruction. The second week was scheduled for Big Bear.26
A companion report named deputy regional executive Dan Henry as the BSA representative, Jacob Groenewegen of Compton as encampment director, and Riverside Scout Executive Carl N. Helmick among the organizers. The program combined regional coordination, council personnel, military facilities, and outside instructors.27
The region’s conference program remained substantial into the 1960s. Northern Orange County Council hosted the November 1963 “Twelve for Twelve” gathering in Anaheim. Advance coverage described participation from fifty-four councils and sessions on finance, council administration, Cub Scouting, unit service, organization, public relations, and outdoor adventure.
National leaders joined regional personnel in conducting the sessions. Walter Whidden participated in the council “Key Three” program for presidents, commissioners, and Scout executives. The gathering also included regional business, volunteer recognition, and Silver Antelope honors.28
Region 12 was also connected with developments that influenced leadership training nationally. White Stag’s institutional history records Whidden’s participation in a January 1964 meeting at Asilomar concerning Béla Bánáthy’s experimental leadership-development program. The gathering brought regional and national personnel together to consider teaching leadership skills deliberately within Scouting.29
The 1953 National Jamboree
The 1953 National Jamboree on the Irvine Ranch was the most visible national gathering held within Region 12’s Southern California territory.
Regional leadership helped bring it to Orange County. Historian Phil Brigandi traced the proposal to Orange Empire Area Council Scout Executive Skip Fife and Region 12 Executive Don Moyer. Irvine Company executive William H. Spurgeon III helped obtain the company’s support, after which transportation, water, and other practical requirements had to be resolved.30
The BSA’s historical summary records 45,401 Scouts and leaders at the gathering. Its significance to regional history extends beyond attendance: councils that ordinarily operated through separate camps and communities helped host an event drawing participants from across the nation.31
The Jamboree also illustrates why event terminology requires care. A temporary Jamboree “section” was a camp-management unit; its number should not automatically be interpreted as a permanent BSA field section or OA area.
High Adventure and Cooperation Between Councils
During Region 12’s final years, Southern California councils developed increasingly formal cooperation around backpacking and high adventure.
The Greater Los Angeles Area Council High Adventure Team’s institutional history traces a Southern California Inter-Council Trails Committee to 1967. San Diego County and Los Angeles Area councils worked with neighboring councils to coordinate their programs, with regional support including the assignment of J. Hurley Hagood as professional adviser.
The same history describes the development of a broader high-adventure committee during the transition to Western Region. Whidden subsequently served in volunteer leadership, and the regional High Adventure Team held its initial meeting at the Western Region gathering in Seattle in October 1973.32
This cooperation provides an example of continuity across organizational change. Trails, training needs, and volunteer experience did not disappear when Region 12’s administrative identity ended.
Insignia, Memorabilia, and Further Reading
Region 12’s material culture preserves another dimension of its history.
Regional insignia and souvenirs can identify conferences, training programs, contingents, and the shared identity of participants from otherwise separate councils. Their value increases when an object remains associated with its original owner, dated program, photograph, or correspondence.
John Koppen’s study of regional neckerchief slides describes the wider development of regional identity through sashes, neckerchiefs, patches, and slides. These objects accompanied the professional conferences and gatherings that brought Scouters together across the twelve-region system.33
Ryan C. Bushore and John Koppen’s Arapaho Regions: A History of the Twelve Regions of the Boy Scouts of America Through Insignia is an important specialized reference for this subject. OASections lists it among its collecting resources, and later International Scouting Collectors Association articles cite it in their research.34
The End of Region 12 and the Western Region Transition
The change from twelve BSA regions to six requires a distinction between the national organization’s management timetable and the OA’s later section designations.
The BSA’s own 1972 Report to Congress states that the new management plan took effect at the National Council Annual Meeting in Los Angeles in May 1972, following Executive Board approval in January. Its Western Region account says the new region was organized and staffed following that meeting. The report identifies Sunnyvale as the Western Region headquarters.35
Contemporary Southern California reporting anticipated that change. In March 1972, the Desert Sun reported that Riverside County Council would cease reporting to Region XII in Los Angeles under the new six-region arrangement.36
The OA’s new section system followed in 1973. For the territory central to this website, Areas 12-E, 12-A, and 12-F were succeeded by Sections W4A, W4B, and W4C. That history is addressed separately in the 1973 BSA Reorganization and OA Areas pages.
Region 12 consequently belongs to a longer history than its administrative dates alone suggest. Its field sections, professional staff, volunteer committees, training programs, and gatherings established relationships that continued under Western Region. In Southern California, Southern Nevada, and Arizona, those connections helped turn separate local councils into a cooperative Scouting community.
- Area 4 History’s existing Region 12 research notes record the motto. Surviving examples include an illustrated Region 12 patch bearing “Siempre Adelante”; the object’s inscription supports the identification, without establishing its manufacturing date.
- Boy Scouts of America, historical timeline in Scouting, January 1924, page 1; Robert Higgins, “OA Section List—12 Regions”, discussing the transition from field districts to regions.
- Boy Scouts of America, Handbook for Scoutmasters, historical discussion reproduced in “Constitution of the Boy Scouts of America”; Higgins, “12 Regions”.
- “Scouts Active in Region Twelve,” Riverside Daily Press, December 19, 1921; “Boy Scout Membership Growth Is Cited,” Healdsburg Tribune, Enterprise and Scimitar, June 8, 1967.
- The Scout Executive, August 1924 and May 1935, as transcribed in Area 4 History’s existing Region 12 working notes. The 1935 transcription also identifies regional deputy executives.
- “Scouts Active in Region Twelve,” Riverside Daily Press, December 19, 1921.
- “Scouts Active in Region Twelve,” Riverside Daily Press, December 19, 1921.
- “Scout Executive to Leave City Wednesday,” Riverside Daily Press, February 25, 1922. The article describes the proposed itinerary and objectives, rather than proving that every intended organizational result was achieved.
- “Carlson, New Boy Scout Executive to Be Honored,” Los Angeles Examiner, January 10, 1927, page 21.
- Irwin H. Gerst, “We Pause to Honor,” Torch and Trefoil, February 1952, page 5.
- “L. A. Becomes Scout Headquarters of West,” San Pedro News-Pilot, February 24, 1938.
- “Moore Named to Scout Committee,” Calexico Chronicle, April 20, 1938.
- “Scout Chiefs Arrive Here for Meeting,” Chico Record, October 20, 1948, page 5.
- “Whidden Named New Scout Head,” Gardena Valley News, November 10, 1960, page 3.
- “Northern County Boy Scout Leaders to Attend Meet,” La Habra Star, August 28, 1963.
- “Scout Leaders Plan Future Activities for Local Region,” La Habra Star, April 5, 1963. This report identifies Burman as section chairman but does not print the section number.
- “Monterey Attorney Named to Area Boy Scout Post,” Salinas Californian, February 19, 1964, page 38.
- “Boy Scout Membership Growth Is Cited,” Healdsburg Tribune, Enterprise and Scimitar, June 8, 1967.
- “Boy Scout Council Meeting Jan. 27,” Calexico Chronicle, January 25, 1968.
- “Awards Presented as 300 Attend 33rd Scouting Recognition Banquet,” Calexico Chronicle, March 15, 1956. The article describes the territory but does not print a section number.
- Order of the Arrow, “Change in Designation of Areas to Letters” and “Regions and Sub-Areas”.
- Section G13W, “Section History”; Robert Higgins, “OA Section List—Region 12”, discussing Area 7 insignia and the later use of 12-F.
- “Many New Troops in Boulder Council,” Needles Desert Star, March 8, 1951, page 5.
- “Awards Presented as 300 Attend 33rd Scouting Recognition Banquet,” Calexico Chronicle, March 15, 1956.
- “Scout Chiefs Arrive Here for Meeting,” Chico Record, October 20, 1948, page 5. These were advance conference plans.
- “Air Encampment at March Field Starts Next Sunday,” Banning Livewire, June 19, 1947.
- “County Scouts to Attend Air Camp June 22,” Desert Sun, June 10, 1947.
- “Scout Leaders Plan Region 12 Conclave,” La Habra Star, November 6, 1963.
- White Stag Leadership Development, “The Historical Background of the Eleven Leadership Skills”.
- Phil Brigandi, “The 1953 Boy Scout National Jamboree,” OC Historyland.
- Boy Scouts of America, “History of the BSA Highlights”.
- Greater Los Angeles Area Council High Adventure Team, This Is Your High Adventure Team, historical sections “Inter-Council Trails Committee” and “Region High Adventure.”
- John Koppen, “Region Neckerchief Slides to the 1964 Jamboree,” ISCA Journal, June 2014.
- OASections, “Resources”; ISCA Journal, September 2024, page 11, citing Bushore and Koppen’s regional-insignia history. The book is identified here as further reading; its full contents were not available for consultation during preparation of this article.
- Boy Scouts of America, 1972 Report to Congress, printed pages 32 and 77.
- “New Scout Structure,” Desert Sun, March 17, 1972. The brief contains imprecise wording concerning headquarters and responsibilities; the BSA’s annual report provides the stronger account of the completed structure.