Lynchburg Council / Piedmont Area Council

The founding of the Boy Scouts of America program in Lynchburg, VA is credited to twenty-three-year-old Frank Chipman Wood, who worked as the assistant superintendent of playgrounds in Washington, D.C., where his department led a campaign to encourage children to play in provided spaces rather than on the street. In Washington, he was actively involved in Scouting, serving as assistant commissioner for the city and as director of Camp Archibald Butt on the Chesapeake Bay. Because of this, it is not surprising that he brought the Scouting program with him when he was hired to become the director of athletics for Lynchburg City Schools in the fall of 1913. Within a year, Wood formed Troop 1 and became its first Scoutmaster.

By early 1920, three Lynchburg troops were operating and two additional units were in formation, necessitating the need for the creation of a local umbrella organization (called a “council” in Scout parlance). In April, the Lynchburg Council of the BSA was officially chartered. The council’s first executive was Adam Jones Himmelsbach (1881-1972), who previously served as assistant Scout executive of the Chester County Council and director of Camp Lafayette in Pennsylvania.

In the early 1930s, Lynchburg Council was renamed Piedmont Area Council as an acknowledgement of its expanded geographic footprint (it had absorbed the Danville Council a few years before).

In 1972, Piedmont Area Council merged with Blue Ridge Council in Roanoke to form the Blue Ridge Mountains Council. The eastern portion of Piedmont Area Council (including Farmville, Crewe, and Emporia) became part of the Scout council headquartered in Richmond.