Cho-Gun-Mun-A-Nock Lodge 467
1952-Present
(Order of the Arrow National Record Card)

Lodge History

The history of Cho-Gun-Mun-A-Nock Lodge goes back far before there was a national honor camper’s organization like the Order of the Arrow. Traceable history goes back to the 1930s to the Indian Days Program at Camp Waubeek. The Indian Days Program, held at the end of each session of camp, included a system of rank corresponding to the number of years a camper had attended the camp. The ranks were: Papoose for the first year, then Brave, Warrior, Medicine Man and finally Chief?, for the fifth year. To obtain a rank, one had to fulfill certain requirements and then had the privileges and responsibilities of that rank.

Sometime between 1928 and 1941, the Black Crescent was born in the Waubeek Area Council. A group of Scouters including Camp Director Glen Jablonski and Doctor M. D. Marr, who was elected chairman, became the charter members of the Tribal Council. Drawing on the experiences of several Tribal Council members who had been members of other honor camper organizations in several other councils, they decided to pattern the new organization on the Tribe of the Black Diamond at Camp Gifford in Omaha. Ceremonies were written and the first Scouts were inducted the same year.

The Order of the Arrow became a part of the National Boy Scout program in 1948, and soon many councils were adopting it as part of their camp program. Black Crescent Lodge number 467 became part of the Waubeek Area Council, headquartered in Cedar Rapids, in 1951. Golden Tomahawk Lodge number 344 became part of the Iowa River Valley Council, headquartered in Iowa City. In 1952 these two councils merged into the Hawkeye Area Council and in 1952 the lodges merged and became Cho-Gun-Mun-A-Nock Lodge number 467.

From the Black Crescent comes our lodge totem, the black crescent of the moon or Cho-Gun-Mun-A-Nock. Cho-Gun-Mun-A-Nock translates from the Natick Indian language as “dark slice of the evening sun or moon.”