The Massjam Oldest and Ugliest Piece of Camping Equipment Contest

Our Troop took Second Place for the "Oldest and Ugliest Piece of Camping Equipment at MassJam '99". It was a contest held on October 10, 1999 between all the Boy Scout Troops (10,000 people total) that attended the Massachusetts BSA Jamboree. We entered our 30 plus year old Coleman, white-gas, camping stove that had all of its paint burned off after many these years of heavy use, and was very old, worn and rusty. We don't think the contest judges knew that the first place winning item, a the propane stove, was newer than ours and that the reason it looked so bad was because the other troop had burnt a fruit cake in it that morning at breakfast. So our Scouts felt that we should have taken first place because our stove was older and had honest ugliness.

Anyway we did win something. Our Second Place Prize was a certificate from EMS (Eastern Mountain Sports) for a 3 day equipment rental of 1 tent, 2 sleeping bags and 2 back packs, an $80.00 value. You can see a scan of our prize here: