History

While the Northeast Illinois Council was founded in 1929, Scouting began in Northeast Illinois in 1910 with some of the first troops in the country. As we continue to gather information and accumulate tokens of the past, we would like this page to serve as our living museum, where you can gain information and share your knowledge to help us maintain pride in our history.

You can help!

We are looking for news articles, photos, letters, and any archival material that might help us to uncover the dynamic history of what is now the Northeast Illinois Council.   If you have information to share or would like to volunteer on this project, please contact our staff.

We are looking for:

  • Stories about your unit history, verbal or written.
  • Photographs of the early days of your unit.
  • Early photographs and video of any of our council camps and activities.
  • Any letters, newspaper articles, camp staff rosters, camp brochures, or advertising collateral.
  • Commemorative special event stories and print collateral.

Check out the NEIC HISTORY TIME LINE-1910 to 2019  to see where we’ve been and how you might help to fill in the gaps. You might also enjoy Don Martin’s Written History with an introduction about the NEIC History Committee.