Lone Scout remembered as wise man

A Lone Scout, they tell me, is a Boy Scout without a troop or a troop leader. I didn’t know about the Lone Scout program until I met a Lone Scout who has been living in Clovis a long time. He was Sam Covington, who reached the age of 93, and passed away in Logan on Thanksgiving Day.

This is his story. He told me about it along time ago.

“I was born in Okolona, Ark., on Oct. 31, 1915,” said Covington, “a few miles southeast of Delight, which is not too far from Arkadelphia. It is sort of in the Southwest part of that state.

“When I was big enough to do chores my father put me to work. I was a good worker and liked being out-of-doors. We have trees and hills down there, nothing like Clovis.

“I was about 11 or 12 and had subscribed to the Boy Scouts magazine. A Lone Scout program was described in it that permitted rural boys who were isolated to become Lone Scouts. We were isolated and you could say we were rural.

“I knew that Boy Scouting had begun in Great Britain in 1910. This Lone Scout program had begun in 1915. It and the Boy Scouts were separate programs at first. A man by the name of William Boyce had started the Boy Scout movement in America and also started the Lone Scout program. I filled out a membership form, sent it in, and was accepted to be a Lone Scout.

“I was told an adult over 21 — and it had to be a man — had to be my supervisor. My father became my substitute scout master. He bought me a Lone Scout uniform as the Lone Scout magazine said it would give me a feeling of belonging. The other kids in the small town kidded me some about that uniform, but I was proud of it.

“The symbol of Lone Scouts was a solitary Indian with arms outstretched, palms down, in a gesture of peace.

“I think my dues were 50 cents a year. I studied Indian lore, learned how to be independent and self-reliant and ‘do a useful thing each day.’ I relied solely on the honor system and followed the basic advancement program that the regular Boy Scouts had: 

“I started out as Tenderfoot, then 2nd Class, then 1st Class, Star Scout, and I was working on my Life Scout pin a year before my folks moved to Hollene, in the northeast part of Curry County. That was in 1931.

“A scout executive from Hot Springs, Ark., came to our little town about a year before we moved to New Mexico and organized a regular Boy Scout Troop. He appointed a man in Okolona by the name of Ron Shackelford to be our scout master.

“We had campouts in the woods and I helped the younger scouts hone their scout skills. One of the things we learned was how to walk like an Indian. Indians pointed their toes in the direction they were going (keeping their feet straight in front of them). White folks mostly walked with their feet sprayed out to the side a bit. By walking the Indian way you walked straight and got where you were going a lot sooner.”

Sam Covington finished his senior high school year in 1931-32 at Hollene and was no longer a Lone Scout. This Lone Scout program dwindled in membership as more and more Boy Scout troops were organized. Sam had no exact date when it ended, but it was the late 1940s, he guessed.

Sam’s father died a couple of years after coming to Hollene. Sam was only 15 when he came to New Mexico. Hollene was the placed where he grew up and he loved it. When he died on Thanksgiving Day his ashes were later scattered over the Hollene Cemetery. He, a wise man, had already made all his arrangements. He remains a Boy Scout and an angel in heaven.

Don McAlavy is Curry County’s historian. He can be contacted at:

dmcalavy@telescopelab.com