Tim Gruber | The Roanoke Times

Josh Grubb, 8, (left) of Bent Mountain joins a group of Scouts in saluting the flag Wednesday morning atop Mill Mountain. Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and Eagle Scouts from the Roanoke Valley gathered to celebrate the Boy Scouts’ 100th anniversary.

Video

• See video of the ceremony and hear the Kudu horn

John Eure stood on the deck beneath the Mill Mountain Star.

As nearby Scouts saluted with two fingers to their foreheads, he raised a twisted antelope horn to his lips and blew a few notes through Wednesday's morning fog.

The ceremony marked the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Boy Scouts.

On Aug. 1, 1907, Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the movement, blew a Kudu horn at 8 a.m. to begin an experimental camp for 20 boys on Brownsea Island off the coast of England.

Wednesday morning, Scouts all over the world replicated the beginning of that movement by blowing the Kudu horn. The group of 10 atop Mill Mountain included Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and Eagle Scouts from the Roanoke Valley.

Eure, Scoutmaster of Troop 50 at Woodlawn United Methodist Church, wore an all-khaki uniform and brown hat, just as Baden-Powell was seen in many photos.

The Kudu horn is from an African antelope. Baden-Powell brought one back to England after serving a tour in Africa for the British military.

Will Craft, an Eagle Scout from Troop 221 of Cave Spring United Methodist Church, also dressed in a period uniform. He sported brown shorts, a white-collared shirt and knee-high socks to resemble early Scout uniforms.

"I have spent my entire years from 11 to 18 trying to get to the rank of Eagle Scout," said Craft, a graduate of Hidden Valley High School. "Scouts was the backbone of my teenage life."

Although the ceremony in Roanoke lasted only about 15 minutes, it will be long remembered by its young and older participants, said David Blanton, Big Lick district executive for the Boy Scouts of America Blue Ridge Mountains Council.

"We are having a small gathering today but what's really neat is we are part of a larger celebration," Blanton said.

Among the celebrants was Heidi Collier, a den leader for Cub Scout Pack 929 in Bent Mountain. She brought her daughter, son and two neighbors.

"This is part of history," Collier said. "It is very important for them to know how much history is involved when they put on those uniforms."

Across the Atlantic, nine boys and one girl from the Blue Ridge Mountains Council participated in the celebration at the 21st World Jamboree at Hylands Park, England, outside London.

According to the World Organization of the Scout Movement Web site, the world jamboree attracts thousands of Scouts from many nations.

This year, more than 40,000 Girl and Boy Scouts from 150 countries are celebrating their founding day with a 12-day Jamboree. It started Friday and ends Wednesday.

"It was exciting just to see all the countries celebrating together," Matthew Crittenden, one of local Scouts in England, wrote in an e-mail.

"After today all the people were really friendly, signing neckerchiefs and asking where they were from. It was like all the barriers were torn down and getting to know each other and becoming one world."

The Scouts from the Blue Ridge Mountains Council participated in a taste of cultures celebration Wednesday sharing Virginia peanuts, sweet tea and dried apples with other Scouts from different countries, said Paul Weary, committee chairman for Troop 221. He was one of the adults who accompanied the Scouts to England.

In an e-mail Wednesday, Weary wrote that he didn't grasp the impact Scouting had on his life until he was an adult.

"It has helped me to develop my character that I have today," he said. "Through Scouting I was able to communicate to both of my children during their young adult years."

Back in Roanoke, Ed Harriman, Roanoke Valley director of finance and marketing for the Blue Ridge Mountains Council, said the thick fog Wednesday morning on Mill Mountain had a connection to the history of Scouting in America.

According to the Boy Scouts of America Web site, in 1909, Chicago publisher William D. Boyce got lost in a dense London fog. A boy came to his aid and, after guiding the man, refused a tip, explaining that as a Scout he would not take a tip for doing a good deed.

This gesture inspired Boyce to meet with Baden-Powell, the Boy Scouts founder. As a result, Boyce incorporated the Boy Scouts of America on February 8, 1910.

"This started out as such a small thing and in 100 years it became the best thing a young boy can be involved in," said Craft, the Eagle Scout from Cave Spring United Methodist Church. "This celebration is just a testament to the strength of Boy Scouts."