Submitted Photo Boy Scout Troop 425 are, front row, Nick Croft, Colin Duzick, Kasey Tennyson, Connor Scharpe, Tyler Croxall and Jaxson Thompson; and back row, Ethan Beede, Chance Thompson, Joshua Slama, Will Greenlee and Jacob Wilson.

Troop 425, the Rough Riders in Minot, turned 50 this year.

Scoutmaster George Smith became leader in 1993, and has carried on the traditions for 29 years. Smith said there are 13 members in the Rough Riders and nowadays the troop meets in the Fellowship Room of the Congregational United Church of Christ of Minot.

The Rough Riders have blue ties around their collars until they have reached 25 days and nights at camp and then they receive red ties with the accomplishment sewn on the tie. The troop raises money through spaghetti dinners, yardwork, raffles and fundraising.

When Smith first became leader, the group met in an old fallout shelter in the basement of North Hill Elementary School, Smith, his son and troop members would have to vacate in the summer months and find another meeting spot until 1998 when the Minot Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 753 became the charter organization until 2000. They have been home at the church ever since, said Smith.

The Congregational United Church of Christ has been the troops charter partner and allowed the group to claim the Fellowship Room. Where in prior locations the troop was always having to take down and put up their flair, the church has creatively designed a sliding curtain to cover the troops wall space if needed, Smith said.

The Minot area has approximately nine troops in the Tomahawk region. Since 1975, the Rough Rider Troop 425 has had 102 Eagle Scouts. Carl Behrens became the troop’s first Eagle Scout in 1975 and Sebastian Caldwell became the 100th Eagle Scout in 2021. An Eagle Scout award is the highest rank a Boy Scout can reach and for this to happen, the Scout has to get through all the ranks and complete a service project.

The first Scoutmaster was Carl M. Olson from 1964-1975, with 11 troops. This first troop however, was unchartered from 1971 until 1972, and unrecognized as consecutive. In 1972 Robert J. Puttre re-chartered the troop with 26 members through North Hill Elementary School.

The Scouts’ most recent trip was their annual June, week-long camping trip in Park Rapids, Minnesota. In August the troop will camp at the old primitive Scout reservation at Lake Metigoshe. The troop generally camps 10-11 months out of the year, Smith said.

Other camps throughout the year are the High Adventure Canoe Trip in Ely, Minnesota and a National Guard camp near Devils Lake. The troops favorite camp comes up in October in Mount Caramel. Smith said that camp is preferred because it is a church camp with a nice facility with cabins.

The Boy Scout Troop 425 will celebrate its 50th anniversary with a picnic this month for troop members past and present, adult leaders and their families. The anniversary was marked in February when all the troops were given patches to commemorate the occasion, Smith said.