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Centered in Fairbanks, the Golden Heart City of Interior Alaska, our council has a history and tradition dating from 1925, thirty-four years before Alaska became the 49th state. Jessie Bloom, our founder, had been a Girl Guide in Dublin. Enthusiastically, she turned a seven-girl sewing class into our first troop. Today, in gratitude, we honor her vision-in-action by naming our local two-week summer resident camp Camp “Jessie Bloom.”
Farthest North Girl Scout Council serves the largest geographical area of any of the more than 300 Girl Scout Councils in the United States serving everything from the 63rd parallel north of the Alaska range, which is more than 350,000 square miles. Our jurisdiction covers an area larger than Oklahoma and Texas combined.
Farthest North Girl Scout Council, formerly called the Fairbanks Girl Scout Council was started in 1925 by a handful of girls in Fairbanks headed by Jessie Bloom. Girl Scouting expanded to rural Alaska in 1945 with the establishment of the first troop in Nome. Because many of the girls did not speak English, they learned the Girl Scout Promise in Eskimo and English.
By 1947, Fairbanks Girl Scout Council became a member of the National Council of Girl Scouts. Camp Clegg was acquired in 1949 and became the council’s summer camp; and a troop was organized in Fort Yukon in 1949 and in Point Barrow in 1950.
In 1952, Farthest North Girl Scout Council was formed and incorporated with 400 girls and 90 adults. The following year the first full-time executive director was hired. By 1957 there were 100 troops with more than 1,000 girls in the Farthest North Girl Scout Council, which is approximately the size we are today.
By the turn of the 21st century, the council had employed 13
executive directors over a 50-year stretch.
Alta Crawford 1950—56
Ruth Brady 1957—59
Gladys Wilkes 1959—61
Irene Cleworth 1961—62
Shirley Owen Karrer 1962—68
Greta Bottcher 1968
Mildred Lotspeich 1969—75
Kathy Dexter 1976—77
Marilyn Huffman 1977—81
Kathi Jones 1981—84
Maureen Markham 1984—87
Jan Janitis 1987—2001
Suellen Nelles 2002—today
Also during that time, the council changed headquarter locations in Fairbanks several times, finally purchasing a service center at 431 Old Steese Highway in 1994 with the proceeds from the sale of Camp Clegg at Harding Lake in the early 1990’s. The service denter underwent renovations to the heating system and community meeting space in 2009.
In 2010, the council invested in improvements to its property in Nome, Camp Dexter. Camp Dexter was acquired through a BLM lease in the 1960s and the structures on the property have varied through the decades. The Cook Hut and Nurses Cabin have remained as the most functional structures on the property. Quonset Huts have come and gone and the DAWN Cabins were boarded up in 2010. Tent platforms were constructed between 2008 and 2010.
The property on Chena Hot Springs Road was brought to life starting in 2015 with the construction of a bridge over Monument Creek. Since that time, slow measures have been taken to add tent platforms, an outhouse and a campfire circle. Additional property has been purchased, including the Boy Scout land, doubling the acreage, and a small plot to add the parking lot. This property amounts to about 4 acres of land total and will only accommodate small groups the size of one or two troops at a time.
In 2020, the worldwide pandemic was a challenging time for all Girl Scout councils and Farthest North was no exception. Programs were exclusively digital and virtual, and that met with limited to no success. Membership dropped by half and the council has been rebuilding ever since. Government grants were essential to keeping the council afloat for 2020 and 2021. Experienced staff and positive attitudes made the difference navigating those years and we look forward to brighter days ahead.
Fairbanks Girl Scout Troop from the 1930s. The photo was taken on what we think is First Avenue in Downtown Fairbanks. This photo was brought into our council from a local whose great aunt is in the photo. We have a rich and long history of which we are very proud!
