Mow-A-Toc Lodge

Mow-A-Toc Lodge 262 of the Redwood Area Council was first chartered May 27, 1944, but the first members did not go through their Ordeal until 1948 when members of the Machek N'Gult Lodge #375 out of Oakland came up to officiate.  Located at Camp Tish-Tang, candidates canoed across the Trinity River to their ceremony site on the banks of where Tish-Tang-A-Lang Creek flows into the Trinity.  In 1950 members of Lodge 375 returned to Tish-Tang to perform the first Brotherhood Ceremony.  In 1954 Mow-A-Toc's first Vigil member was Levi Young, one of the original members, who kept his Vigil at that year's Area Conference in Stockton.  The first Vigil to be conducted in the Mow-A-Toc boundaries was for Jerry Hasz in 1956 at Blue Creek, up the Klamath River near the Humboldt-Del Norte County line.

In 1954 Mow-A-Toc hosted its first Area Conference at Elk River Scout Camp.  The highlight of the event was Saturday night's dinner consisting of a massive crab feed.  In 1957 the Area Conference was again hosted by Mow-A-Toc, this time at Camp Tish-Tang.  Participants witnessed especially lively dance competitions and a native village was on display because of the camp's location on a reservation.

The origin of the name Mow-A-Toc is somewhat fuzzy.  Early white settlers of the region had spellings of what is now called the Modoc Tribe that varied greatly.  Looking at these historic spellings, Mow-A-Toc and Modoc could easily be the same word interpreted into the English alphabet differently.  Another possibility is that the Mowatoc people were the Southwest portion of the Modoc Tribe.  They had similar names because they were associated, but the minor difference distinguished them.  There are also references that Mow-A-Toc translates to Feather of the Forest, though I could not find any additional information on that, like in which language.  This translation is fitting for the Lodge's totem, the Redwood Tree, because the Redwood's needles look like feathers.

In 1965, When Earl Davis serving as the Area 12C Chief, he was subsequently selected as the National Conference Vice-Chief for the 50^th Anniversary NOAC.  This position was the predecessor position to the National Vice-Chief.

Left to Right:  Michael S. Costello, National Conference Chief; Dr. E. Urner Goodman, Founder of the Order of the Arrow; Earl Davis, National Conference Vice-Chief.