Oct. 28 – The troop has returned from the Fall Camporee at Fort Mifflin. This was a fun and informative trip in an historic location that few people visit. The trip started in a heavy rainstorm but the afternoon cleared up nicely. There were lots of ultimate Frisbee and games of Tag on the ramparts of this Revolutionary era fort located under the approach to Philadelphia International’s main runway. There were tours of the “casemates” (underground living quarters for enlisted men), the underground bakery and dining hall (Troop 406’s quarters for the weekend), the officers quarters, the blacksmith shop, cannon shed and the powder magazine that once held enough gunpowder to blow Fort Mifflin off the map! In the evening there were Ghost story tellers who took us to the various haunts of the fort and related tales of the little girl Emily who still sobs upstairs in the cannon shed, the officer’s wife Elizabeth who still wails over the loss of her daughter, the ghost of William Howe who was hung for treason during the Civil War and the Blacksmith Jake who still watches over the shop. Fort Mifflin has over 1000 reported ghosts! The Scouts seemed to sleep well in their underground “Bat Cave” or “Mole Hole” as some called it. This was despite the Ghosties and Ghoulies and Things That go Bump in the Night.

Mr. Houseal