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November 18, 2006

Free Pioneering Books Online


Scoutscan is a Canadian Scouting website that hosts (among other things) a large collection of PDF scans of out-of-print Scouting books. Of particular relevance to Ropes and Poles are these four 1950's era pioneering books by John Thurman:

Each project is illustrated with an overview drawing, like the 'Seine Bridge' at the top of this post from Progressive Pioneering. The drawing is followed by an equipment list and then a discussion of the construction of the project. Pioneering Principles, as the name implies, concentrates on general pioneering concepts rather than projects, but the other three books include introductory sections with general instructions on equipment, leadership and technique.

These books were the inspiration for this website. Along with John Sweet's Scout Pioneering (available from Scouts Canada, or Gauteng Scout Shop for the South Africans), these books are a very solid grounding in pioneering, with literally hundreds of projects for your troop and plenty of ideas for your own projects.

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