Firecrafter Patch And Uniform History

Chief Francis O. Belzer was the founder of the Central Indiana Scout Band, Firecrafter, and was the first Scout Executive for the Central Indiana Council. A camp rank system similar to Firecrafter was employed previously at the Culver Woodcraft Camp of Dan Beard, the famous outdoorsman and early Scouter, whom Belzer knew and visited often over a period of many years. Beard rewarded his campers' achievements with a series of three ranks, Notcher (bronze), Midnotcher (silver), and Topnotcher (gold), symbolized in each a patch of appropriate color having a beaver within a stylized "C" (for Culver).

The camp rank emblems were designed by Belzer, starting with the Culver "C" for the Camper rank. The original patches were cut from felt and hand sewn by "Aunt Stella" Doeppers, who worked at the council office, and who continued to make the patches until the task became too great for her. In the early days, when a Scout became a Camper, he received a khaki vest with the Camper "C" emblem sewn on it. When he became a Woodsman, a yellow teepee was added to his original patch. When he became a Firecrafter, he received a whole new patch including the red fire. The khaki vests were worn over the scout uniform at campfires and other important camp occasions. These were discontinued in the late 1940s.

The original Firecrafter patches, both pocket and chest, were made of felt. The patches were cut with a set of band iron dies that were sharpened and kept at council headquarters. The original idea was to start a camper out with his "jersey C" as a Camper. Yes, everyone had a fireshirt in the early days. When you made Woodsman you were handed a yellow felt teepee and you were expected to sew it on your patch yourself. The patch hangar for the pocket that we all use came from the fact that the early scout shirt patches were felt and could not be washed. Scouts did laundry in summer camp in those days. With only one shirt and hot Indiana summers hey, go figure. The color of lacing around the patch hangar also made a difference. White was Camp Chank-tun-un-gi, red was Bradford, green was Rotary, blue was Kiwanis, and yellow was Port Optimist as colors for the different fires. This was never official by headquarters. A set of fire patches were made and there are a few sets of these around. The band iron dies have disappeared and been found again over the years. They were last seen in the old scout headquarters building on North Alabama Street in Indianapolis in the mid 1970s.

When Belzer, Bradford, Rotary, and Cullom were the main council camps under the CIC there was a system of officer patches in the summer camp Fire staff. In the open part of the "C" of the pocket patch were chevrons to signify position. One chevron was Scribe/Treasurer, two chevrons were Vice-Chief, three chevrons were Chief. The color of chevron was term of office. Red chevron meant current in office and gold chevrons meat past officer. The only patches I known by me to still exist are past chief patches belonging to Steve Holt a past chief and Council President and Mike Stalcup. The practice was to be expanded to the Embers with a system of diamond shapes. As far as it is known, it never happened. Cost was probably the holding factor.

Legend has it that prior to this system of hand me down patch was used, the patch was made of leather and was very old. Legend says that Belzer himself made them. All of them were Firecrafter insignia. The chief had a Scout badge on his tipi. The Consul had a book on his tipi. The Scribe had two crossed quills on his tipi. The Treasurer had the seal of the Treasury Department on his tipi. Detailed drawings of these can be seen at the Firecrafter Historical Center. Joe Harshman says that they were his idea and were tooled by a Belzer staffer in 1953 or 1954. He says they were beautiful, but the early holders stole the things!

When the national council decided in the 1970s that you could not wear a patch on the uniform shirt that did not say Scouting, BSA, or have a Fleur-de-lis on it, Firecrafter saw a problem. Camper and Woodsman patches were ordered that had BSA on them, but what was to do about the Firecrafter patch? It was suggested that a fleur-de-lis should be put on the teepee, or in the points of the "C", or under the fire. Finally the issue was taken to the Scout Executive, and he said to leave the patch as it is. If national somehow has heartburn with that, they could come to him. So, the Firecrafter patch has remained unchanged since 1920.

There has been a variety of Firecrafter rank patches made. The Firecrafter organization in the Lincoln Trails Council in Illinois has a white "M" on the Minisino patch. There was a McCormicks Creek Firecrafter patch that was created for only thos Firecrafter who went to the State Park to work on service for a time during one summer. The patch was blue with everything else in gold weave. There was never an official emblem for Hi Bark in the Central Indiana Council. I guess there were so few that everyone knew who was and who was not. There was also a Minisino patch from the Okaw Valley Council in Belleville, Illinois, that not only had the white "M", but a log horizontal in brown under the "M" that stood for Hi-Bark.

Former Firecrafter Historian John Pratt has a brain teaser:

We (718k20) were a part of a council contingency headed for Philmont. We would stay overnight one night and and day at the Koshare Indian dancers Kiva in La Junta Co. The scoutmaster's office in the kiva had a patch collection on the wall with patches from every council that had visited the kiva. Some of the patches were OA of course, but the familiar Firecrafter patch caught my eye. Since it is against the by-laws for non-fire members to hold insignia I was curious. I examined several patches with the Firecrafter design. All said Firecrafter at the bottom of the blue patch and the name of the rank across the top of the blue patch. The firecrafter patch remained the same, but camper, woodsman, or firecrafter was across the top. Imagine a firecrafter patch with the word Camper across the top an you get the picture. Weird and not from the CAC for sure. I also noticed one blue patch with a pine tree as the only insignia and a three pointed fire under the tree. The word Firecrafter on the bottom and the word Trapper across the top of the blue patch. No other markings, and no one recognized the rank. Another mystery. I asked every one on staff at the kiva about the patch and most had no idea of what I was referring to. The scoutmaster is long dead now. So even another rank was invented somewhere in the USA.

This patch, we now know, was from the Camp Post in the South Plains Council in Lubbok, Texas. A version was also made in felt. To see an image of it, visit the patch collection page.

It is interesting that the pre-1980s Firecrafter shirs were more of a green color. They were often army surplus tank tops, while the top are ribbed. Unfortunately, Rit no longer makes the color dye (forest green) that was used for those shirts. Still, many people disliked the ribbed shirts and chose to dye their own tank tops. If you wish to dye you own tank top, use the Rit ecru dye.

Chest patches for Campers and Woodsmen lasted until about 1947. Felt chest patches were discontinued for Firecrafter in 1984. They are now embroidered. Felt Minisino chest patches lasted until roughly the same time. Three inch Firecrafter felt patches were used on the class "A" shirt until the 1950s or early 1960s, and then reintroduced for a portion of the 1970s. Felt Minisino pocket patches were issued into the 1970s and early 1980s. Both types of patches are embroidered today.

Starting in the 1950s, each of the embers in the Central Indiana Council had ember flaps that were worn on the right shirt shoulder flap. They were limited one to a person. In 1972, the Council Committee voted to welcome the Order of the Arrow into the council by retiring the wear of ember flaps from the class "A" uniform. This was done as a definitive move to combine the purpose of the two organizations. There was no Order of the Arrow lodge in the Central Indiana Council until the merger. The uniforming was decided to be the lodge flap and the 3" pocket Fire patch. No silver arrow hangars (pocket rockets) were to be worn over the Fire patch, and sashes were never to be worn with Fireshirts.

Embers today may still issue their own items. Monjenikyah Ember (Golden Eagle District) is one of the embers that currently has items (mug, patch, etc.) available. Rising Sun Ember and Setting Sun Ember also have patches for sale.