Our History

History: Girl Scouts of Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois

Girl Scouting in Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois began in 1917 when the region’s first troops formed in Iowa City and Burlington, Iowa. The movement grew quickly with an additional troop in Iowa City and new troops in Aledo and Rock Island, Illinois, within three years.

The women who launched the Girl Scout movement in eastern Iowa and western Illinois were pioneers. Mae Phipps, Nell Edgar, Mrs. P.C. Hildreth, Mrs. Frank Krack, and Annette Christiaansen are a few of the many who believed in Juliette Gordon Low’s vision.

Today we are 19,000 girls and 5,000 adults strong because of the women who stepped forward a century ago to take the lead.

GSEIWI Historical Timeline
1910s
1917	First troops in region organize in Iowa City and Burlington with Mae Phipps at the helm.
1919	Second troop organizes in Iowa City with Mrs. George Maresh as the Girl Scout commissioner.
1920s
1920	Troops launch in Aledo and Rock Island, with the help from the Women’s Club. National membership exceeds 50,000. The second local Council is formed.
1923	The first troop in Galesburg, Illinois, starts with Nell Edgar.
1924	Troops in Maquoketa and Fairfield, Iowa, begin with Mrs. P.C. Hildreth in Fairfield.
1925	The first troop in Geneseo, Illinois, starts when girls go to the library to find information about a girls’ club and the librarian suggests Girl Scouts. National membership tops 100,000.
1926	Mrs. Frank Keck is the leader for the first troop in Davenport, Iowa, which becomes eighty-five girls strong.
1927	Founder Juliette Gordon Low dies in Savannah.
1928	Girl Scout troop already functioning in Cedar Rapids.
1930s
1930	The Davenport council is formed, and soon acquires Camp Shirmanan, the first local Girl Scout camp.
1930-31	Troops form in DeWitt, Iowa, and East Moline, Kirkwood, Silvis, and Keithsburg, Illinois.
1932	Miss Annette Christiaansen, who had been a leader in Milwaukee, registers the first troop in Dubuque, Iowa, at St. John’s Lutheran Church with twelve girls. The Dubuque council is formed.
1933	National membership is more than 300,000.
1935	Mrs. Charles Wilson arranges Girl Scout summer camp for girls at Camp Minneyta, a Boy Scout camp. A two-week cookie sale is conducted in Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa, and a total of $192 is raised.
1936	The first nationally franchised Girl Scout cookie sale occurs.
1937	Lou Henry Hoover attends a regional conference in Davenport. The Moline council is formed.
1938	Galesburg troops dress 250 dolls for the empty stocking club. A total of 120,000 cookies are sold in Davenport.
1939	Davenport day camp costs ten cents every other day (no slacks allowed at camp). Delia Miner, who has been in Girl Scouting in Chicago, forms the first troop in West Branch, Iowa.
1940s
1940	Moline resident camp costs $8 a week; Davenport camp is $6 per week.
1941	Dr. Mabel Otis and Mrs. W. Butterworth donate a 119-acre camp to the Moline council; it is later named Camp Shabonee. A group of 16 girls asks Mrs. Melvin Shepard to form a troopthe first in Waterloo, Iowa.
1942	Davenport troops crochet afghans and make dresses for English Girl Guides and sewing kits for service men. They also work as farmhands during World War II. Moline Brownie troop dues are two cents a week. National dues are fifty cents a year.
1944	National membership is more than 1 million. Moline Girl Scouts have war effort projects: fat salvage, paper salvage, clothes collections for Russian relief, and victory gardens.
1945	Waterloo is twelve troops strong.
1945	Camp L-Kee-Ta is purchased with a gift from the Elks Club. The first parcel of land for Camp Conestoga is purchased with money from Kiwanis and cookie sales.
1946	The East Moline council is formed.
1949	The original 110 acres for Camp Little Cloud are purchased and donated by Harry Wahlert.
1950s
1951	The Shining Trail Council of Girl Scouts is formed with offices in Burlington. The original, formal dining hall named after long-time Girl Scout leader and volunteer Bea Conrad is built at Camp Conestoga. Over the next decade, Cardinal, Shabonee, and River Bend councils are formed.
1952	Camp Conestoga is dedicated (replacing Camp Shirmanan), and Mrs. C.P. Conrad is the first commissioner. Moline troops pack kits for Korea.
1953	National membership is more than 2 million. Juliette Gordon Low’s birthplace in Savannah is purchased by the national Girl Scouts organization.
1960s
1962	Fiftieth anniversary of Girl Scouts is celebrated. National membership is 3.5 million.
1963	The national Girl Scout program is redesigned for four age levels: Brownies, Juniors, Cadettes, and Seniors.
1965	Conestoga Council acquires 275 acres of land in Allamakee County for what will become Camp Tahigwa.
1967	Troop 3 of Cedar Falls wins a Conestoga Council-sponsored camp naming contest for Camp Tahigwa. The name is Native American, meaning “at peace.”
1970s
1973	The River Bend and Shabonee Councils merge to form the Mississippi Valley Girl Scout Council. The board consists of seventeen from Illinois and sixteen from Iowa. Eight of the members are men.
1975	Cardinal Council joins the Mississippi Valley Council. National delegates vote that membership should continue to be limited to girls. Members elect first black national Girl Scout president, Gloria D. Scott.
1978	National membership dues are raised to $3. A new Girl Scout emblem launches with the three-profile silhouette of girls’ faces.
1980s
1982	The Mississippi Valley Girl Scout Council receives a gift of land from the city of Rock Island to build a program center and council office.
1983	President Ronald Reagan signs a bill into law naming a new federal office complex in Savannah for Juliette Gordon Low. It is the second federal building to be named for a woman.
1983	The original swinging bridge is built by the 389th Army Reserve Unit from Decorah, Iowa, at Camp Tahigwa.
1989	The Oaks building at Camp Little Cloud near Epworth, Iowa, is destroyed in a fire.
1989	The national meeting of presidents and executive directors by regions includes a teleconference session, the first use of this technique at a Girl Scout national meeting.
1990s
1990	A capital campaign to raise $400,000 begins for Shining Trail Council’s Camp L-Kee-Ta.
1993	The Little Cloud Girl Scout Council receives nearly $60,000 in donations to purchase a building for new quarters.
1996	An equestrian program is added to Camp Tahigwa, complete with a barn, trails and tack. Thanks to a $1.16 million capital campaign for Camp Little Cloud, its main lodge is remodeled extensively and renamed Singing Bird Lodge.
1996	GSUSA’s website debuts on the Internet.
1997	Construction begins on the Shining Trail Council’s new 6,000-square-foot building in the Flint Ridge Business Park in West Burlington, Iowa.
1997	Mary Rose Main, the national executive officer of Girl Scouts of the USA and a native of Moravia, Iowa, visits Girl Scouts of the Mississippi Valley.
1999	Mississippi Valley Council officially changes its name to Girl Scouts of the Mississippi Valley, Inc.
2000s
2001	Resident camp is closed at Camp Conestoga near New Liberty, Iowa, for the beginning of reconstruction of facilities.
2005	GSUSA announces that 312 Girl Scout councils will merge into 109 realigned councils over a time period of several years.
2007	Girl Scouts of Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois is formed by the merger of the Mississippi Valley, Shining Trail, Conesota, and Little Cloud councils. Diane T. Nelson is announced as the new organization’s chief executive officer.
2008	A flood in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, inundates the council’s service center with eight feet of water; the staff has a half-hour to evacuate. Flooding also impacts Camp Tahigwa.
2010s
2010	The council moves from Westdale Mall to the new Human Services Campus of East Central Iowa in downtown Cedar Rapids.
2011	There are 3.2 million Girl Scouts nationwide: 2.3 million girl members and 880,000 adult members working primarily as volunteers. Girl Scouts of Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois has 19,000 members and 5,000 volunteers in thirty-eight counties.
2012	Girl Scouts celebrates its centennial.