Treasure Island Reservation
Tinicum Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Consisting of Treasure Island and Marshall Island. Home to one of the nation's oldest Boy Scout camps, established by the Philadelphia Council, B.S.A., in 1913. Birthplace of the Order of the Arrow, a national campers' honor society founded upon Native American traditions. Its Unami Lodge No. 1 was created here in 1915 by the camp's first director, E. Urner Goodman, and his assistant, Carroll A. Edson.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
On two wooded islands in the Delaware River, the Philadelphia Council established one of the country's oldest Boy Scout camps in 1913, in the first years of American Scouting. Two summers later, camp director E. Urner Goodman and his assistant Carroll A. Edson created the Order of the Arrow here—a camping honor society whose rituals drew on Native American traditions. Its founding Unami Lodge No. 1 gave rise to a program that would spread to Scout councils nationwide.
Why it matters
Treasure Island is the birthplace of the Order of the Arrow, a lasting institution of American Scouting that shaped outdoor and character education for generations of youth.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the early 1910s, a new movement was sweeping the United States: organized Scouting. The Boy Scouts of America was founded in 1910, and within a few years councils across the country were racing to establish summer camps where boys could learn woodcraft, self-reliance, and outdoor skills. This was the Progressive Era, when reformers placed great faith in structured, wholesome activity as a way to shape young character.
The setting for this marker is a pair of wooded islands — Treasure Island and Marshall Island — in the Delaware River along the Bucks County shore. Rivers and islands made ideal camps: a natural boundary from the everyday world, room to swim and canoe, and forest enough to feel like wilderness within reach of a growing city.
Against that backdrop, the Philadelphia Council established one of the nation's oldest Scout camps here in 1913, in the very first years of American Scouting. What began as a place to pitch tents would soon become the birthplace of an institution.
People & events
Two summers after the camp opened, its first director, E. Urner Goodman, and his assistant, Carroll A. Edson, set out to solve a practical problem: how to recognize the campers who best lived out the ideals of Scouting and cheerful service. Their answer, created here in 1915, was the Order of the Arrow — a camping honor society whose ceremonies drew on Native American traditions.
The founding chapter was Unami Lodge No. 1, the very first of its kind. Goodman and Edson built it not as an award to be won but as a fellowship, meant to strengthen the camp community and encourage members to keep serving others.
What the two young leaders launched on these islands did not stay on them. The idea of honoring dedicated campers through a shared brotherhood proved compelling, and it spread outward from this single lodge to Scout councils far beyond the Delaware.
Its place in the American story
The Order of the Arrow became a lasting national institution within American Scouting, carrying the program's emphasis on service and the outdoors to generations of young people. That an organization now spanning the country traces its origin to two islands in the Delaware River is exactly the kind of small-beginnings story historic markers exist to preserve.
The camp itself matters too. As one of the oldest Boy Scout camps in the nation, it represents the first wave of a movement that reshaped how American youth spent their summers — trading, for a week or two, the city and the classroom for canoes, campfires, and the responsibilities of shared outdoor life.
It's a reminder that many enduring American traditions were improvised by a few dedicated people trying to make a local program better, never guessing how far the idea would travel.
If you visit
This marker looks out toward the river islands where American Scouting put down some of its deepest roots. The Delaware here is quiet, green, and easy to picture as it was in 1913 — a natural retreat just far enough from the city to feel like an adventure.
Standing on the Bucks County shore, imagine the first campers arriving by boat, and two young leaders a couple of summers later inventing a tradition around an evening campfire. The islands' seclusion is part of the story: it's what made this a place apart, ideal for both camping and ceremony.
The stop fits well into a slow drive along the upper Delaware, a stretch rich in river history and small river towns. If you've ever worn a Scout uniform, this is one of those places where a familiar name on a patch suddenly has a real address.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · E. Urner Goodman
- · Carroll A. Edson
Related events
- · Founding of the Order of the Arrow
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Martin Johnson Heade (1819-1904)
Solebury Township, PA · est. 2000
Born here in Bucks County in 1819, Martin Johnson Heade grew up above his family's store and took his first lessons from the local Quaker painters Edward and Thomas Hicks in nearby Newtown. He went on to help pioneer American "luminism," a style prized for its still, glowing light over marshes and coasts, and became famous for jewel-like studies of hummingbirds and floral still lifes. His long career carried him across the Americas in pursuit of his subjects.
Henry Chapman Mercer (1856-1930)
Doylestown Township, PA · est. 1998
At the turn of the twentieth century, Henry Chapman Mercer helped lead the American Arts and Crafts movement from the quiet county seat of Doylestown. A trained archaeologist who feared industrialization was erasing the tools of everyday life, he both revived handmade ceramic tile and amassed a sprawling collection of preindustrial American implements. Between 1908 and 1916 he poured three fantastical reinforced-concrete buildings — his home Fonthill, his tile works, and his museum — that still stand as some of the boldest early experiments in that material.
Pearl S. Buck
Hilltown Township, PA · est. 1995
Pearl S. Buck spent much of her early life in China, the daughter of missionaries, and drew on that world to write novels that gave American readers an intimate, humane portrait of Chinese farm life. Her 1931 novel "The Good Earth" won the Pulitzer Prize and helped earn her the 1938 Nobel Prize in Literature—the first American woman so honored. After 1934 she settled at Green Hills Farm here in Bucks County, writing prolifically and championing international understanding and the welfare of children. The farm later became home to the foundation that bears her name.
James A. Michener (1907-1997)
Doylestown, PA · est. 1999
James A. Michener grew up in Doylestown and graduated in 1925 as a top student from the public school that once stood here. His first book, Tales of the South Pacific, won the 1948 Pulitzer Prize, launching a career of sweeping, meticulously researched novels — Hawaii, The Source, and many more — that made him one of the 20th century's most widely read authors. A tireless traveler, art collector, and philanthropist, he never forgot the Bucks County town that shaped him.