Do you know what the Kansas City Chiefs and the Boy Scout camp near Osceola have in common?
Both are named for H. Roe Bartle, a two-term Kansas City mayor, whose nickname was “The Chief.” Bartle was instrumental in getting the Dallas Texans to move to Kansas City in 1962. The franchise owner renamed the team in honor of Bartle, whose nickname, “The Chief,” reflected his work for the Cheyenne, Wyoming, Boy Scout Council, plus the fact that at 6-foot-4 inches tall, Bartle had a build described as “colossal.”
On Sept. 9, the Clinton Friends of Scouting are holding a golf tournament at Meadow Lake Golf Course to benefit the H. Roe Bartle Scout Reservation and local Eagle Scouts. Now in its 42nd year, the success of the tournament has also been colossal.
“We have raised more than half a million dollars for the Boy Scout camp,” said Jack Wetzel. “This is our passion and our mission.”
Family is at the heart of the Clinton Friends of Scouting. The golf tournament is a memorial to Jack’s grandfather, G.S. Wetzel. Jack said he doesn’t know if his grandfather was an Eagle Scout, but Jack, his father, Dr. Gus Wetzel II, and his cousins are.
For the last ten years, Clinton Friends of Scouting Golf Tournament has also raised money for scholarships for Eagle Scouts as well as the camp.
“We give a $1,000 scholarship to each Eagle Scout who graduates from high school,” Jack said. “We gave 10 last year.”
A member of Troop 430, Jack said his Scoutmaster was J.C. Smith, for whom the park on the south side of the Square is named. Jack’s Eagle Scout project was redoing the landscaping at Clinton United Methodist Church, where the dogwood trees he planted near the main door when he was 14 years old are still alive.
Jack also went to camp at the H. Roe Bartle Scout Reservation, originally called Camp Osceola, and was a member of the honor camp tribe, Mic-O-Say. Bartle founded the honor tribe in 1925 and brought it to Camp Osceola in 1929.
Another strong Scout family in Clinton is that of Gary Cover. Gary, an Eagle Scout in North River in Kansas City, has been involved in Scouting in Clinton for many years, he said, and describes himself as “one of the oldest Scouts around.” Gary’s sons, Jeremy and Nic, are Eagle Scouts, and were members of Troop 430.
Gary’s law partner and son-in-law, Wes Hilton, is from Lebanon, and has been to camp at Bartle and is a member of the honor tribe. West is also a future Scout leader for his 5-year-old son, Callahan. Both Gary and Wes are both on the Clinton Friends of Scouting committee.
Gary also has four grandsons in Lee’s Summit who are Cub Scouts, he said, and will go to camp at Bartle when they are old enough. According to camp history, H. Roe Bartle, with others, donated the funds to buy the first 468 acres for the Boy Scout camp in 1929. Originally on the river, Camp Osceola opened in 1930.
Renamed the H. Roe Bartle Scout Reservation, it now covers 4,200 acres and consists of three camps, with swimming pools and the Truman Lake waterfront for sailing and water sports.
The son of a Presbyterian minister, Harold R. Bartle was born in Virginia, and chose to go by his middle name, Roe, his mother’s maiden name. He was a Boy Scout leader in Kentucky, then in 1923, was hired as the Boy Scout executive for the Cheyenne Council, with oversight of the state of Wyoming. Bartle worked with people on the Wind River Reservation, and during this time, said he was inducted into the Arapaho Tribe, and given the name of a chief, “Lone Bear.”
After his parents moved to Missouri, Bartle was the Boy Scout executive in St. Joseph for three years, then served for almost 30 years as executive of the Kansas City Area Council of Boy Scouts of America, until 1955.
A successful businessman, investor and popular public speaker— his voice was known to blow out speaker systems — Bartle donated his Boy Scout salary when he worked in Kansas City back to the organization.
In 1955, Bartle, who had a law degree, was elected mayor of Kansas City and in 1959, was re-elected. During his terms of office, the city hospitals were integrated and construction started on the Kansas City airport. On Christmas Day, Bartle visited jails, orphanages and boys’ homes, and was also known to go to two-alarm fires in turn-out gear.
Jack said a lot of ‘old Scouters’ turn out to play golf in the annual Clinton Friends of Scouting tournament, including a handful from out of town. Cost of entering is $320 for a four-person team, which includes 18 holes of golf, a golf cart and lunch cooked by local Boy Scouts. Overseeing the grill will be Clinton’s assistant fire chief, Matt Willing, the current Scoutmaster of Troop 430. The troop is chartered by the Clinton Rotary Club.
For an additional $20 a team, tournament players will be entered for door-prize drawings and the ‘Big Shot Golf Challenge,” or can play a four-person scramble. The tournament is grateful to its sponsors, Jack said, which include Jim Falk Motors, long-time sponsor of the “Closest to the Pin” contest.
In addition to Jack, his father, Gary and Wes, the Clinton Friends of Scouting committee is made up of David Garnett, Cynthia Glasscock and Larry Dawson of Hawthorn Bank, financial advisor Ben Johnson of Fortress Wealth Advisors, and Allen Huff, Henry County public administrator. Jack Wetzel is a real estate agent with RE/MAX Truman Lake in Clinton.
The Kansas City Chiefs team has avoided changing its name a second time because of accusations of cultural appropriation, which has also been applied to Boy Scout honor tribes. The H. Roe Bartle Boy Scout Reservation was originally named for the nearby town of Osceola, which was named after a famous Seminole Chief whose name means “Black Water.”
