Scouting celebrates 100 years with traveling exhibit

SANDY — It's amazing what you can pack into 10,000 square feet — how about a century?

The "Adventure Base 100" has rolled into Utah to highlight the 100th anniversary of American Boy Scouting.

This unique, traveling campus offers Utahns a rare glimpse into the exciting world of Scouting with a stage show, multi-sensory experience, a museum, a ropes course and more.

Located at the far west end of the South Towne Center parking lot, 10450 S. State St., just west

of JC Penney, it's hard to miss — it looks like a fort, surrounded by 1,000 American flags.

However, it's a one-of-a-kind exhibit and in Utah for just two days — Friday and today from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Admission is free and the public is invited. The traveling exhibit has already visited 35 American cities since Jan. 1's Tournament of Roses in Pasadena, Calif. It will visit six more cities after Utah, ending on Nov. 25 at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City.

Kids are sure to notice the ropes course or the climbing wall.

"Can I go again?" Sarah Brownstein, 9, of Salt Lake, asked her mother after one trip on the ropes course. She then climbed through the knots and stretches again.

"It was fun," her mother, Ellie Brownstein, said, after she, too, finished the ropes course. "It was a bit of a challenge."

Wendy Whitchurch from Holladay brought all her children to the Adventure Base.

"I'm very impressed," she said. "There's a lot of staff around to help you and it looks like there's something for all ages."

Her son, Elijah, 10, didn't want to leave the ropes course.

While the ropes course is a "must do," the museum is a "must see" at the Adventure Base.

The traveling Scouting museum features an overview of the BSA, complete with a display of rare artifacts collected by the organization over the last 100 years.

Besides a timeline, old photographs and interactive media, there's an extensive Pinewood Derby exhibit and a searchable merit badge database.

There's also the contents of a future time capsule and it includes many historical patches, some donated by the Great Salt Lake Council of the Boy Scouts.