The final Kecoughtan Lodge chenille emblem

Although Standard Pennant Company of Big Run, PA  was the manufacturer for the first 3 Kecoughtan chenille emblems, Krelman Company of Pueblo, CO was selected by the Lodge to create the final chenille patch which was patterned after the Lodge's first green arrowhead patch from the early 50's.

Jeff Godby reports that this patch was produced in 1996 and says:

The C-4 was sort of my idea as well.  I liked how Blue Heron made a chenille using their A-1 design and mentioned that we should do the same thing.  Don't know why they came from a different manufacturer, but it was probably because it was cheaper.

Since Kecoughtan officially merged with Chanco to form Wahunsenakah Lodge at the beginning of 1996, the C-4 chenille was issued in the twilight of the Lodge's existence, and represents a fitting tribute to the original arrowhead patch design from the earliest years of Kecoughtan Lodge.

The Krelman Kecoughtan C-2 chenille prototype

In mid-September 2009 Mike McCaughan sent me a picture of a prototype Kecoughtan C-3 chenille that I had never seen before. Unlike the released version with a red felt background this prototype had a tan felt background.

While researching this emblem I consulted Jeff Godby, who was Lodge Chief at the time and whose father, Dr. Ron Godby, was the Lodge Trading Post Advisor responsible for ordering this chenille issue.

Jeff confirmed the existence of the tan C-3 prototype and sent me pictures of one from his collection with the only difference being that the prototype Mike McCaughan acquired does not have a Standard Pennant Company label on the back while the one in Jeff's collection does.

A fortunate coincidence occurred when Jeff mentioned that he also has a prototype chenille patch for the Kecoughtan C-2 chenille.  As he remembers:

I was Lodge Chief when we came out with the C-2 and C-3 issues, and it was my idea for the lodge to issue our first chenilles in about 15 years ---  good money maker.  My father was the trading post advisor, and he was in charge of ordering the chenilles.  We gave Krelman & Standard both a shot at the C-2 and went with Standard.

The Krelman prototype is noticeably smaller than the Standard Pennant Company version, and the colors are more subdued. Additionally, the reverse side of the Krelman prototype is black, although when viewed from the front the felt background is red.

The Kecoughtan Chenille Emblems page has been updated to include the recently discovered prototype C-2 and C-3 issues. No known prototype of the C-4 is known, but perhaps a surprising discovery awaits!

My SE-8 chenille article is published in the ISCA Journal

I was pleasantly surprised to see that my article about the Section SE-8 chenille patch issued in 1993 at the final SE-8 conclave was published in the September 2009 edition of the ISCA Journal. Editor James Ellis did an awesome job of reproducing the images I provided to him that illustrate the released and prototype versions of this patch. For those of you who aren't members of the International Scouting Collectors Association and don't receive the Journal, you can view a 3.1 MB PDF version of the cover and my article here.