Order of the Arrow, Born at Treasure Island

Treasure Island, an island in the Delaware River near Bucks County, has hosted one of the oldest Boy Scout camps in the country since nineteen thirteen. But the camp's most lasting contribution to Scouting history happened in nineteen fifteen, when camp director E. Urner Goodman and his assistant Carroll Edson founded the Order of the Arrow here.

The Order of the Arrow is a camping honor society built on a ceremony inspired by the traditions of the Lenape people, the Indigenous inhabitants of the Delaware Valley. Goodman wanted to recognize Scouts who best lived the Scout Oath in their daily lives and in service to others. What began at this island summer camp grew into a national organization with nearly one hundred thousand members today. Today the Order of the Arrow is an official program of the Boy Scouts of America, with its founding lodge, Unami Lodge Number One, tracing directly back to this riverbank.