Scouting at the World's Fair

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Other World's Fairs and Expositions

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Expo 67

Montreal

It was the summer of '67.  I was between my Junior and Senior years in college.  I'd just spent six really "fun" weeks at the Indiantown Gap Military Reservation for Army ROTC summer camp.  A friend, George and I were sitting around with nothing much to do and the Fall semester rapidly approaching.  We had to do something to save this Summer from being a total loss.  And then it occurred to us - ROAD TRIP!!!  We'd both enjoyed the New York World's Fair a few year's earlier and thought we'd recapture some of those great times.  So, a few days later we jumped in my '65 Mustang and headed north for Montreal and Expo 67.  WOW!!!

Expo 67 was a first class international exhibition with over 90 foreign, provincial, industrial and "theme" pavilions.  Many incorporated architecture that was "futuristic" and astounded visitors.  It was located on the waterfront and on two islands in the Saint Lawrence River - Isle Saint Helene and Isle Notre Dame.   The fair provided entertainment for visitors in the form of  movies, products, art, and propaganda.  The fair ran for only one year - 1967 - but reopened the following year as "Man & His World."  Although several buildings, like the USSR and Czech pavilions, were removed immediately after Expo 67 closed, most pavilions stood until the mid-1980's, several years after the annual "Man and His World" summer exhibition ended in 1981. The La Ronde amusement park is still in operation.

For a detailed overview of the fair, you should visit this wonderful site produced by Jeffery Stanton which incorporates clickable maps of the fair leading to numerous articles and images:

Expo 67 - Montreal World's Fair

  International Scout Centre 

The International Scout Centre, the pavilion for the 11 million scouts from 89 countries, occupied an area on Ile Sainte-Helene about as large as a football field. A central path crossed it, on each side of which large photographs of scouts at work and at play were mounted on wooden panels. A tent supported by cedar masts, which covered a central stage, dominated the area. There games, songs, dances, and demonstrations were staged during the day, and a campfire burned at night. Outside the tent were booths depicting typical scout activities. A pool had been built for the scouts so they could, through canoeing, swimming, lifesaving and scuba diving, present the pleasures and dangers of water.

from Expo 67 - Montreal World's Fair  © 1997 by Jeffrey Stanton

    An International Scout Centre will be a feature attraction at Expo '67 in Montreal, Canada (April 28 to October 27, 1967)  Every day during Expo, Scouts will swarm over the Centre (about the size of a football field), demonstrating Scouting activities -- everything from canoeing to ham radio operations and scuba diving to bush survival.  Periodically they will build signaling towers, bos'n chairs on an aerial runway, and rope "monkey" bridges.  They also will demonstrate camping techniques.   Dominating the Centre will be a 30-foot-high tentlike structure -- a Scouting theatre-in-the-round.  Featuring Scouting skills during the day, the structure can be a gathering place in the evening where young and old alike can enjoy campfires and singing.
    Incidentally, a total of 264 Scouts and Explorers from the B.S.A. already have been selected to serve on the Scout Service Corps for Expo '67.  This fills our quota for the service corps.

  from SCOUTERGRAM , page 4 - SCOUTING A Magazine for Adults, January 1967, Vol. 55, No. 1 published by the Boy Scouts of America

Scouting Memorabilia