Scouting and the Minutemen’s Pursuit Trail

BY CYNTHIA L. BAUDENDISTEL

It was 3:00 a.m. on April 19, 1775, when local militia commander Colonel James Barrett was awakened and told that British regulars were on the march to Concord! He could not have imagined that by day’s end, one of the most powerful military forces in the world would be chased back to Boston, bloodied, bruised, and even killed by him and the minutemen, farmers who were also his neighbors and friends.

The militias and the minutemen demonstrated preparedness and tenacity that day—qualities that the Boy Scouts of America aims to engender in its members today.

Since the late 1950s, scouts and adult leaders have created a network of 237 National Historic Trails in the U.S., with another 18 in nine other countries. These trails provide opportunities for hiking while learning about significant events in our nation’s history.

David Owen, Concord’s BSA Unit Commissioner and Scout House board member, participated in the Boy Scouts’ adult leader Wood Badge training program in 2016, which requires participants to create five significant projects. David said, “I noticed that, while there were multiple trails to memorialize April 19, 1775, the most notable of which were the Issac Davis Trail and Bedford Flag Trail, they terminated at the point where the main events of the day began. There was no trail that memorialized the events and sites of the day-long engagement between the militias and the British army.” As a result, he set out to create the Minutemen’s Pursuit Trail to enable scouts to hike that entire route from Meriam’s Corner in Concord to Prospect Hill in modern-day Somerville (15 miles away) to learn about the events of the day and earn a medal and patch.

Scoutmaster Robert Cline with scouts from Troop 11 in Dorchester and Troop 132 in Concord atop Prospect Hill Tower after completing the hike from Concord on April 19, 2017

All photos courtesy of the Concord Chapter of the Boy Scouts of America

On April 19, 2017, scouts from Troop 11 in Dorchester hiked the trail that day and began an annual tradition (except for two years during the Covid pandemic) to hike the trail on April 19 every year. What started as a hike with just four scouts and two adults that first year grew to an event with more than 70 participants by 2019. To date, over 200 scouts from as far away as Pennsylvania and Florida have hiked this special trail dedicated to the fateful events of April 19, 1775.

This year, the scouts will assemble at the Masonic Temple in Monument Square early in the morning of April 19 for a generous pancake breakfast courtesy of the Concord Masons. From there, they will hike to the Old North Bridge and then traverse the Reformatory Branch Trail, Moore’s Swamp, and Sleepy Hollow Cemetery on their way to Meriam’s Corner, just the way the militias did in 1775. From there, they will pick up the route of the Minutemen‘s Pursuit Trail, which begins with the length of Minute Man National Historical Park, then proceeds along Massachusetts Ave and the Minuteman Bikeway through Lexington, Arlington, and Cambridge, where it turns before Porter Square onto Somerville Ave, into Union Square, and up to the tower on Prospect Hill. All in all, the scouts will hike 20 miles, enabling them to fulfill the final requirement of the Hiking Merit Badge.

The Minutemen’s Pursuit Trail Medal, designed by Concordian Michael Sprague

All photos courtesy of the Concord Chapter of the Boy Scouts of America

For more information on Scouting in the Concord area and the Minutemen’s Pursuit Trail, visit scouting.org and concordscouthouse.org.