lodge history
While the El-Ku-Ta Lodge was founded in 1956, proceedings had been underway for some time regarding the establishment of the Order of the Arrow in the Great Salt Lake Council.
From the records it appears that C.E. Hammond, the Scout Executive had written to the national office in the early 1950's about setting up a lodge in Salt Lake.
Because of some concerns of various scouting partners, it took several years to answer all of the questions about the OA to the satisfaction of the council. However by 1955 it was apparent that a lodge would be established and in 1956 it was decided to make the establishment of the lodge a part of the summer camp program at Steiner.
The camp director at the time was Valois Zarr, a teacher at East High, who became active in the initial establishment of the lodge and whose son Tom became an early lodge officer. It is nor clear who the first lodge Adviser was, however it may have been Mr. Zarr or the Scout Executive.
While many believe that it was a ceremony team from Ogden that inducted the first ordeal lass, the better evidence is that it was a ceremony team from the Tannu lodge in Reno, Nevada that actually did it. Research on this point is continuing. In June of 1956 the first ordeal class was inducted and the El-Ku-Ta Lodge #520 was launched.
For the first several years, it was mostly at Steiner that inductions were held with a fall ordeal to catch those who could not attend at amp. Lodge officers were also elected at this fall ordeal to serve during the calendar year to begin in January.
Steiner had used its own honor ceremony society prior to the establishment of the OA lodge. This was discontinued with the establishment of the OA lodge.
The first set of lodge officers set out by-laws (now called lodge rules) that among other things set forth the design of the lodge flap. The elk was chosen as the totem and the name derived from elk and Utah. The flap was to have an Indian on each side of the flap looking at each other in a sign of brotherhood. It also depicted the mountains around Steiner with sun rays coming up behind the mountains signifying the dawn of a new day in Scouting.
From that beginning over 30,000 young men and adults have joined the Order in the Great Salt Lake Council through the end of this year, truly the dawning of a new day in Scouting.
We are interested in the history of the lodge during the first 5-10 years. If you know any of that history , please let one of the lodge officers know or send the information to Brian Henry