2022 was a banner year for scouting in Eagle Grove, as five local teens earned their Eagle Scout ranks. For a little perspective, West Allis, Wisconsin – a suburb of Milwaukee with more than 59,000 residents (Milwaukee has over half a million residents) broke the record in 2018, with 11 scouts in one year. Eagle Grove has a population of just over 3,500 people, so it seems likely our local scouts troops may just have broken the record for a town our size!
And Eagle Grove had two local citizens inducted into scouting's elite society, the Order of the Arrow in 2022 as well. Father and son duo Michael Umthun and his dad Ken Umthun, a member of the local troop committee. Fourage is also a member.
Eagle Scout is the highest rank a scout can achieve, and the rank is known to open doors. And many of the world's most respected leaders in business and politics have been Eagle Scouts.
Like all Eagle Scouts, Cole Fourage completed a public service project as part of earning his Eagle Scout rank. Fourage's was more ambitious than most. He installed the monument honoring the memory of Eagle Grove's first scoutmaster, Howard Schoonover – who was also the first scoutmaster west of the Mississippi – and the Eagle Scouts who came before him, as well as honoring local scout and hero Aaron Eillerts.
The idea for the monument, however, came from a former local scout, who'd since moved away, Steve Halverson of Monona, WI. "When I was in scouts, and this would have been in the late 1970's," Halverson explained to the Eagle by phone last February, "the scoutmasters would often talk about Howard Schoonover, and how he was not only a veteran of the Spanish-American war, but he also founded the first Boy Scout troop west of the Mississippi. And we were a part of that same troop. It really got to me." He decided that Schoonover deserved a monument. "I've been thinking about that for decades," Halverson said.
Halverson also wanted to honor a more recent legendary Eagle Grove scout, Aaron Eilerts. "What kind of also motivated me was, thinking about Aaron, I thought if not for that tragedy he would have been a shoe-in for Eagle Scout," Halverson said. "I thought, wouldn't it be great if someone in his troop could do this monument almost like doing Aaron's Eagle Scout project for him? Sort of to honor them both."
Fourage agreed with both objectives, and agreed to take on the project. To complete it, he raised more than $13,700 and put in over 60 hours of work just in arranging the logistics. Those logistics included getting permission from the city to install the monument.
"We're super excited to assist in Eagle Grove scout projects,"said City Administrator Bryce Davis last February. "Especially a project like this, which improves a local park. We're also excited that this is immortalizing the history of scouting in Eagle Grove."
Eagle Monuments produced the monument for Fourage at cost. Owner Colleen Bartlett was impressed with the way the scout took charge of the project. "Cole contacted me to help him with this project, and to help him put it together. He was wonderful to work with," Bartlett said. "He knew he had the responsibility. And I told him over and over again, 'this is your project, you tell me what to do'. And so I really truly did enjoy working with him."
The Monument went up in mid August and was officially opened to the public in a Ceremony held on August 20th. Both Halverson, and the mother of Aaron Eillerts attended. Fourage was awarded the Eagle Scout rank December 30th.
