Boy Scout Memorial-Rhea County, Tennessee

I got to thinking about an old camping trip on White Creek just a few miles south of Rockwood, Tennessee. What amazed me was how much information is on the web related to obscure places like that. This is no national park, but just a big chunk of private land too rugged for development so far.

I thought of the memorial cross next to the Highway 27 bridge across White Creek. A memorial to 7 Boy Scouts and their Scoutmaster who lost their lives in a flash flood there in March of 1929.

I remembered that there was a highway sign nearby for a place called Glen Alice, and I associated the whole beautiful area with that name. A partial inspiration I’m sure for my first daughter’s name. Google Earth shows the spot with very few houses nearby.

Google Earth is really great for letting you go back to those places you may never see again without leaving your house. The highway cam showed the memorial cross and the satellite let me spot where I camped a few miles up the creek.

I remember Jimmy Painter was supposed to meet me out there and he wound up unable to come. Man those owls way up the hollow sure made some lonely hoots. He came the next day and as we swam in the creek we thought often of the boys that got washed away many years before.

Here are the co-ordinates from waymarking.com N 35° 47.677 W 084° 45.072 . Check it out if you want to find out what Waymarking is all about.

White Creek at HWY 27 from Google Earth