Texas Attractions: National Scouting Museum
City: Irving
Address: 1329 West Walnut Hill Lane, Irving, TX 75038
Phone: 800-303-3047 or 972-580-2100
Website: www.bsamuseum.org
About the National Scouting Museum:
The National Scouting Museum is the official museum of the Boy Scouts of America.
The museum was originally located in New Jersey, but moved in 1986 to the campus of Murray State University in Kentucky. It reached its current destination in 2002 when the museum was moved to Irving to be next door to the Boy Scouts' national headquarters.
The museum serves as a tribute to the organization and traces its history and development. At 53,000 square feet in size, the National Scouting Museum contains more than 500,000 artifacts. Those artifacts include uniforms, badges, pins, paintings, replicas of campsites and documents including papers from "Scouting fathers" Lord Robert S.S. Baden-Powell, James E. West, and Ernest Thompson Seton.
Also included is the largest collection in the world of Norman Rockwell's Scouting-related paintings.
There are also a shooting safety gallery; a 6-lane pinewood derby track where visitors can race derby cars; and a "mountain rescue adventure" area where visitors can see what it's like to climb a mountain or kayak a river.
The National Scouting Museum is open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., and on Sundays 1-5 p.m. The museum is closed on major holidays and the first week in January each year. There is an admission fee.
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