Qualla: 24th World Scout Jamboree

24th World Scout Jamboree: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In July 2019, the country lanes of Fayette County, West Virginia, briefly carried license plates from every continent. The 24th World Scout Jamboree had landed at the Summit Bechtel Reserve, drawing more than 40,000 Scouts and leaders from 152 nations for a 12-day camp organized jointly by the Boy Scouts of America, Scouts Canada, and Asociacion de Scouts de Mexico. The theme was Unlock a New World, which the planners meant ambitiously and which the Scouts took literally - clicking arm-mounted radios with strangers, swapping flag patches, trying foods they had not heard of three days earlier. It was the first World Scout Jamboree on U.S. soil since 1967, and it remains the only one held in the 21st century.

24th World Scout Jamboree: A Continental Welcome

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The decision to share hosting duties among three national Scout organizations was new. So was the geographic argument behind it - that a North American jamboree should belong to the whole continent, not just the country hosting the campsite. The Summit's reclaimed strip-mine land...

24th World Scout Jamboree: The Sustainability Treehouse

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Rising above the central campus, the Sustainability Treehouse is part education center, part architectural statement. Built of locally harvested timber, the structure collects rainwater for its own use, generates electricity from wind and solar, and uses geothermal loops for clim...

24th World Scout Jamboree: Novus and the Art of Clicking

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Every participant received a small electronic device strapped to the arm called the Novus. Bump arms with another Scout, and the Novus exchanged contact information and counted the click toward a leaderboard. Complete activities and the Novus collected badges - more points, highe...

24th World Scout Jamboree: The Global Village

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Global Development Village brought NGOs and aid agencies into tents arranged like a fairground - clean-water demonstrations beside refugee-resettlement workshops beside fair-trade-chocolate samples. The Faith and Beliefs zone hosted services for the world's major traditions, ...

24th World Scout Jamboree: An Artistic Record

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

German photographer Juliane Herrmann came to the Jamboree to continue Attitude, a long-running documentary portrait series on Scouting. Over the course of the camp she photographed participants representing 113 of the attending nations. The resulting portraits later traveled to e...

24th World Scout Jamboree: Aviator's Notes

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Summit Bechtel Reserve sits at 37.93 N, 81.15 W on a high plateau above the New River Gorge in Fayette County. From altitude, look for the green plateau with the silver arch of the New River Gorge Bridge to the immediate south as your visual anchor. The nearest commercial air...