Time Capsule: February 8, 1910

February 8, 1910: 100 years ago today – February 8, 1910 – William D. Boyce incorporated the Boy Scouts of America. Popular legend says that Boyce first learned of the Scouting movement organized by Lord Robert Baden-Powell from an Unknown Scout that gave him directions on a foggy London street in late 1909.

In a 1990 article with the Haverhill Eagle-Tribune, when asked about his childhood, John Bellairs noted that he was somewhat of a loner until he made some "lifelong friends in the Boy Scouts" and some of these memories have carried over into his books.

Like John, Johnny Dixon was a member of Troop 112 and meets a lifelong friend in Byron “Fergie” Ferguson at camp [The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt]. Lewis Barnavelt is a Scout, too – a member of New Zebedee’s Troop “One-thirty-three” [The Whistle, the Grave, and the Ghost].