By: Brook D. Curtiss - Publisher and Plainview Eagle Scout
The City of Plainview, the most recent owner of the Plainview Boy Scout house, recently received approval from the City Council to tear down the structure, which had become run down over the last 17 years or so with no use.
The Scout house had served hundreds of Cubs, Scouts and Eagle Scouts in Plainview since its creation in 1917, but had recently fell into disrepair with no local packs or troop, and little use. Broken windows, missing shingles, and more than one hole in the siding finally tipped the scale into “unrepairable” and the structure was torn down this past week.
The Plainview Girl Scout house remains, and is used mainly for storage.
According to the Plainview Centennial book, the Boy Scout house that stood between the Girl Scout house and the Plainview Elementary was built in 1950 in the Band Shell Park with funds that were donated by Plainview residents.
Plainview had hosted Troop #162 in since 1917 under the direction of Charles P. Land and Professor George Potter. The first Scouts met at the schoolhouse and were assigned to three patrols.
The last three Eagle Scouts were awarded their ranks in 2007 – 90 years later - at which point, Troop 162 had only one remaining active Scout, Jacob Diedrichsen, who transferred to another troop to finish his Eagle work.
After some 91 years of Scouting in Plainview, in 2008, Troop 162 gave up its charter and liquidated part of its assets, holding a basic camping outfit and funds being held in trust in case the community has interest in restarting the Troop.
After 17 years practically dormant and deteriorating, the Scout house that had stood for 75 years was torn down. A few artifacts were retained by some of Plainview’s remaining Eagle Scouts, and may be donated to the Plainview Historical Museum in the future to preserve Plainview’s Scouting History.
The Eagle Scouts of Plainview have been memorialized in a sign along Highway 20 in Chilvers Park, which was recently damaged in 2023, and has not yet been redesigned and replaced, commemorating the 37 Eagles in Plainview’s scouting history.
As of the 1986 Centennial book, 27 Eagle Scouts, the highest honor a Scout can achieve, were listed. In the 2011 125th Celebration book, a current listing with dates were added:
1957: Robert L. Baber, Jimmy W. Hill, David Holmes, Bruce Johnson, Don Russell
1964: Tom Holmes, Terry J. Mc-Clain
1965: John McDonald
1968: Michael J. Lingenfelter
1971: Mark Lingenfelter
1973: Dale Bonge, Randall L. Steinkraus, Tracey R. Wood
1974: Scott Lingenfelter
1975: Rex L. Chavet, Scott Hart
1977: Dale Beltz, Rodney L. Blunck
1978: Gary E. Beltz, Curt C. Hart
1979: Kirby C. Marsh
1980: James R. Ahl, David F. Friedrichsen, Douglas P. Haverkamp
1981: Todd Hart, Mark Haverkamp
1982: Andreas J. Allen
1996: Camron Vossberg
1997: Jeremy Brozek, Brook Curtiss
1999: Thomas Sauser, Ryan Vossberg
2002: Jared J. Halsey, Joshua J. Rosberg
2005: Brian Bowman
2007: Leonard J. Risinger, Grant C. Stelling
Serving and training those scouts “was an equally long and diverse list of scoutmasters” including:
1934, 1936: Curtis P. Winkle
1938-1939: George Raver
1942-1944: Byron Trump
1945-1946: Rev. Rudolph F. Kluthe
1948: Loring Jenkins
1949: George Blake
1950: James T. Scott
1951: Bill Hinrichsen
1952: Leon Jensen
1954-1965: Bob Hoops
1966-1967: Fred Diedrichsen
1968: Delius Roach
1969, 1971-76: Larry Bonge
1977-1982: Kenneth Hart
1983-1985: Michael Shaffer
1986: David Adams
1987-1989: Rex Chavet
1990-1994: Gary Petry
1996-2000: Lance Brozek
2001: Max Nelson
2002-2007: Bruce Curtiss