Irvine World News in Irvine, California

Jamboree City: 1953 National Boy Scout Jamboree at Irvine Ranch

The 1953 National Boy Scout Jamboree, the first west of the Mississippi, drew about 50 000 Scouts from 48 states including Alaska Hawaii and 16 foreign countries to Irvine Ranch July 17 23. Myford Irvine and Bill Spurgeon arranged the site at Jamboree Road later. Camp infrastructure supported 3 million gallons of water daily and 88 miles of pipe while thousands of tents housed attendees in Tent City nicknamed Jamboree Town. Meals involved mass feeding with 600 000 quarts of milk and hundreds of thousands of other items, with Army logistics and rail transport delivering supplies and participants from 82 trains and nine railheads.