The Historic Trails Award connects you with history by visiting a real trail or site where important events happened. You'll research its story, camp nearby, and help preserve it for others. It's a great mix of adventure and learning.
Why it's worth it
History feels different when you walk the same ground. For this award you'll dig into the story of a real trail or site, camp nearby, and help take care of it. It might be a stretch of a pioneer wagon route, an old canal towpath, a battlefield, or a trail Native nations used for generations. You become one of the people keeping that story alive for whoever comes next.
Start this week
- Look up national historic trails and historic sites within a few hours of home, and pick two that interest you.
- Ask a librarian at your public library for books or local history files about your favorite.
- Ask your Scoutmaster to bring it to the next planning meeting so the troop can choose a weekend.
- Ask an adult leader to contact the site or park office about what restoration or marking work they need.
Stay safe
- Stay on marked trails and off old walls, earthworks, and ruins. They can be unstable, and climbing on them damages what you came to protect.
Requirements · 3
Every official requirement and part, numbered to match Scouting America, in plain language. Sign off against the official wording (opens in a new tab) (updated 2020).
Note: This is a unit activity; afterward the unit leader files the award application with the local council.
- Requirement 1
Find a historic trail or site and study its history, using sources like a historical society, public library, or people living nearby (see the Scouting America Historic Trails list)
Tip: Ask a local historical society, library, or park ranger about historic trails or sites near you. Read up on what happened there.
For example: Research can include a library book, the park's website, old maps, and a conversation with a historical society volunteer. Make a one-page fact sheet: what happened here or who traveled this route, when, why it mattered, and one story about a real person.
- Requirement 2
Spend two days and one night hiking or camping on the trail or near the site (staying at a nearby hotel or other Scouts' homes is OK)
Tip: Plan a two-day, one-night trip along the trail or near the site. Share what you learned with your group around the campfire.
For example: Camp at a campground near the site, hike a marked section of the trail on day one, and share what you learned at the evening campfire, with each Scout telling one fact or story from the research.
- Requirement 3
Work with an adult group, such as a historical society, to restore and put markers on some or all of the trail or site, or to plan and put on a historic pageant, ceremony, or public event there big enough for local press coverage
Tip: Contact the site manager to see what help is needed, like clearing brush, building markers, or helping with a historical event.
For example: Helping could mean clearing brush from a trail segment, repainting or installing trail markers with the land manager, cleaning up a historic cemetery with permission, or helping set up and guide visitors at a living-history day.
Places to visit
Ask an adult to set it up, and go with your family, den, patrol, or crew.
A local historical society or history museum
Staff and volunteers know local trails and sites and often have old maps, photos, and records you can look at.
How: Have an adult call ahead and ask if someone can show your patrol materials about the trail or site. Many are free or low-cost.
The historic site's visitor center
Rangers or volunteers can give a talk and point you to the best trail section for your trip.
How: Check the site's website for program times, or have an adult call ahead and ask for a group talk.
Ask yourself
- What did you expect to learn about this place, and what surprised you?
- Whose stories are told at this site, and whose might be missing?
- How did walking the trail change the way you picture what happened there?
- Why do you think people work so hard to protect places like this?
Good questions to ask a park ranger or historian at the site
- What do most visitors misunderstand about what happened here?
- How do historians figure out what really happened? What sources do you trust?
- What threatens this site today, and how can volunteers help?
- Which story about this place do you wish more people knew?
Helpful reads
For leaders & parents
- Combine this award with a summer trip or a camping weekend near a historic site.
- Invite a local historian or ranger to speak to the unit before the trip.
People & places that can help
- National Park Service (opens in a new tab) — Many historic trails and sites, plus volunteer programs.
- Local historical society — Knows the history of trails and sites in your area.
- Public library — Books, maps, and local history collections.
- Historic Trails Award (opens in a new tab) — Scouting America's official rules and application for the award.
- National Trails System (opens in a new tab) — Maps and stories of national historic trails across the country.
- National Register of Historic Places (opens in a new tab) — Search for officially recognized historic places near you.
- Partnership for the National Trails System (opens in a new tab) — The nonprofit that supports national trails, with trail info and volunteer opportunities.
Pairs well with
Helps you earn
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Tips, examples, and questions are ideas from experienced leaders, not extra requirements. Your unit leader or counselor decides when a requirement is complete.