The Story Behind The Boy Scout Tree, A 2,000-Year-Old Redwood

I confess: I am passionate about historical references to scouting.

When I come across an old black and white photo of Boy Scouts, I usually find myself going down a rabbit hole from which it may take me hours to escape.

(Sorry, boss! It’s part of my job!)

Take for example this one, which was sent to me by an old friend.

Thousands of years ago, in an area nearly 300 miles north of what would become San Francisco, two young trees emerged simultaneously from the damp ground.

Instead of fighting among themselves for resources such as water, light and soil food, the young trees apparently decided there were enough nutrients to share.

So the two little trees grew together, side by side. Over the years, they merged to become one tree, becoming even stronger.

This tree stands over 240 feet tall and over 23 feet wide at its base. It is considered a double-trunked redwood because it is essentially two trunks fused into one.

If your arm span was 90 feet, you could literally hug this tree.

He lives in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park near Crescent City, California, a park that was established in 1929 to preserve redwoods like this one.

But among all this, it was the name of the tree that caught my attention.

This mighty specimen is known as the Boy Scout tree.

An unlikely story behind the scout tree

Many old-growth redwoods have names. There’s El Viejo del Norte, the one with the widest branch. There’s Juggernaut, the ninth-largest tree in the world by volume, and Hail Storm, the fourth-largest tree in the world by volume and the largest in Jedediah Smith Redwoods National Park.

THE the biggest The park’s tree is called New Hope. It is over 110 meters tall (!) but is relatively thin with a width of only 5 meters.

And the tree that started as two trees that eventually merged into one?

It’s called Boy Scout Tree.

Many stories on the internet about this tree (and believe me, I’ve read A LOT) claim that it got its name from the idea that the two trunks resemble the Boy Scout salute.

I should point out that I am not a scouting historian. However, astute observers will notice that while the Cub Scout salute is a two-finger salute, members of Scouts BSA, Venturing, and Sea Scouting use a three-finger salute.

The two-finger salute originated from The Cub Scout Handbookoriginally written by Lord Baden-Powell in 1916, because two fingers resemble a wolf’s ears.

Likewise, the three-finger salute has been around since the beginning. Scouting for BoysBaden-Powell wrote that salvation is about three things: honoring God and country, helping others, and obeying the Scout Law.

Could a tree with two trunks be named after the Boy Scout salute, when that salute uses three fingers? It seems possible, but unlikely.

The most likely story

The most likely story is the one that can be pieced together from this 2017 PDF from the National Park Service History Library and Electronic Archives. (Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park is part of the Redwood National and State Parks system.)

According to NPS historians, Boy Scout Tree — and the trail that leads to it, called the Boy Scout Tree Trail — are named for Jack Breen, the sheriff of Del Norte County from 1919 to 1935. Breen, it turns out, was famous for being the first to locate the double-trunked redwood specimen.

It’s not clear exactly when Breen found the tree, but one thing is known: In 1922, Breen and a few of his friends founded Troop 10 in Crescent City, a Scouts BSA unit that is still alive and well to this day within the Crater Lake Council.

Around the same time, a bridge was built over Mill Creek, on what is now known as Howland Hill Road. In 1950, a local scout group officially dedicated the bridge to Breen. It is now known as the Jack Breen Bridge.

Over the years, the Boy Scout Trail has become one of the most popular hikes in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park.

It is 5.3 miles long and relatively flat — it only climbs 750 feet.

“With an abundance of towering trees in an interesting progression of different environments, the extraordinary Boy Scout Tree Trail is not so much a hike as a showcase of the best redwood scenery in the world,” writes Dave Baselt, owner of the website Redwood Hikes.

On the trail, there is a sign that reads “BS Tree.” No, not THAT kind of “BS.” The sign directs hikers to the Boy Scout Tree, which itself has an old sign hanging on it.

Baselt, much more of a historian than I, notes that the Boy Scout Trail was not even mentioned in a popular guidebook to the area published in 1975. He speculates that the trail has become popular in recent years mainly because of positive reviews on social media.

Special thanks to Baselt, the National Park Service, the Crater Lake Council, and everyone else I pestered for information for this article.

Scout Trail photos courtesy of Dave Baselt/Redwood Hikes Press

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