Girl Scouting was introduced in River Falls in 1928. By 1935, when the local council was formed, there were three registered troops. In 1947, at the apparent height of scouting in River Falls, the city had eight Girl Scout troops and three Brownie Scout troops. Although there are occasional references to the Brownies, the records are mainly those of several Girl Scout troops in River Falls. They fall into two distinct time periods, 1930-1950 and 1965-1976; there is an unexplained lack of documentation of any kind for 1950-1965. The collection has been separated into four series: Activities, Records, Printed Material, and Scrapbooks.
The ACTIVITIES series is comprised of material generated in four merit badge projects by members of the River Falls Girl Scout troops and a General File. The latter contains primarily material from the 1930s and 1940s on the annual Play Days, Thinking Days, fund drives, play scripts, and programs, plus a short description and photographs recording a 1976 visit to Troop 1062 by a group of British Girl Guides and Brownie Guides. In the specific activity files the earliest Camping material pertains to Kamp Kinnickinnic, originally a day camp in River Falls and later an established camp near Amery; included is correspondence, promotional materials, programs and schedules, registrations, evaluations, and songsheets. The material since 1965 consists mainly of booklets about camping in the St. Croix Valley Girl Scout Council area. The Micronesian Sister Troop Project was an activity of Troop 1050 in the late 1960s. Its Sister Troop was No. 29 on the island of Udot in the Truk District of the Caroline Islands in the Pacific. This file contains correspondence about the project by the River Falls girls, some display material, and information on Micronesia including a National Geographic article (May 1967) and a 1967 handbook about the Truk District, a United States Trust Territory.
The Applications for Adult Leaders in the RECORDS series also includes Committee member registrations and a resume and photograph of a prospective camp leader. The Individual Girls' Records include registration dates, age, grade, troop number, address, parent, camping, rank, and badge information, and occasionally the reason a girl left scouting. The Miscellany folder contains two acknowledgements of donations by the River Falls Girl Scouts.
The PRINTED MATERIAL includes Girl Scout handbooks, magazines, newsletters, and a wide variety of pamphlets about scouting in general; camping; ranks and badges; promotional information relating scouting to churches, schools, and clubs; and specialized topics. The reports consist of a 1935 River Falls local council annual report, a 1935 report of the national director, the 1934 national treasurer's report, and several annual reports of the St. Croix Valley Area Girl Scout Council.
The two SCRAPBOOKS from the 1930s are mainly newspaper clippings detailing activities and meetings. They include information on several girls who received the Golden Eaglet, the highest Girl Scout award. The two more recent scrapbooks include newspaper clippings, snapshots, programs, awards, and occasional letters.
