GSOH History

Ohio's Heartland has had Girl Scout troops since 1916. Various legacy councils date back to 1921. Our current council was formed in 2009 with the merger of three councils: Heart of Ohio, Heritage Trails, and Seal of Ohio.

Heart of Ohio

Heritage Trails

Seal of Ohio

Click on each Legacy Council Below to learn its history.

Heart of Ohio toggle arrow

1932

Ruth (Sholly) Shollenbarger became the director of the Newark and Licking County Council and was responsible for the opening of Camp Wakatomika.

1942

Camp Wakatomika opened.

1956

These councils combined to create the Heart of Ohio Council: Coshocton, Knox (Mt. Vernon), Licking (Newark), and Muskingum (Zanesville) Counties.

1966

Perry (New Lexington) County was added

1968

Guernsey (Cambridge) County and the Marietta Council (Noble, Morgan, and Washington Counties) were added.

2009

The counties of the former Marietta Council were split out from the Girl Scouts of Ohio's Heartland merger and became part of the Black Diamond Council.

Heritage Trails toggle arrow

1923

A Marion Girl Scout Troop sang at President Warren G. Harding's funeral.

1934

The Shelby Girl Scout Council was formed and in 1939 decided they wanted their own meeting place. The Little House was dedicated in 1940 and celebrated its 85th anniversary in 2025.

1958

The Indian Trails Council purchased the 162-acre farm in Morrow County known as Crooked Lane Farm. Most of the money to purchase the farm came from Cookie Sales proceeds that had been saved over the previous 15 years. Other camps in the Council were Camp Walholding in Loudonville, Camp Hilltop Haven in Holmes County, Camp Niniwan in Ontario, and Camp Young in Upper Sandusky.

1962

The following councils merged to form the Heritage Trails Council with its headquarters in Mansfield: Appleseed Trail Council (Ashland, Crawford, and Richland Counties), Indian Trails Council (Marion, Morrow, and Wyandot Counties), Holmes County, and Wayne County.

Seal of Ohio toggle arrow

1929

Land was acquired for both Camp Ken-Jockety and Molly Lauman.

1950

A gavel made from downed branches of the old Logan Elm Tree was presented to the Pickaway Council. This is one of the most rare and interesting items in the GSOH Archives.

1963

The Seal of Ohio Council was formed by combining the Ohio Trefoil Council (Delaware, Fayette, Franklin, Highland, Madison, Pickaway, and Union Counties) with Adams, Fairfield, Galia (added in 1968), Hocking, Jackson, Pike, Scioto (added in 1966), Ross, and Vinton County Councils. The Ross County Council had been using the name "Seal of Ohio" since 1960 and it was agreed that this was a good name for the new, larger council. The scene depicted on the Great Seal of the State of Ohio is in Ross County.

The Cultural Assets Team (CAT)

The purpose of the Cultural Assets Team (CAT) of GSOH is to collect and preserve objects of a historical nature related to Girl Scouting and its members, especially in the council area, and promote interest in and disseminate information about the history of Girl Scouting within Ohio, the country, and the world. As a part of this effort, CAT maintains displays at the GSOH Headquarters in Columbus and the Zanesville Service Center. The team has also done displays at various events, including Urban Campout and Alum Brunch.

The collection has been built over the years through gifts of all types of Girl Scout memorabilia including uniforms, equipment catalogs, dolls, handbooks, photographs, and more. If you would like to make a donation, please see the CAT Donation Brochure. In addition to maintaining the memorabilia collection, CAT also has Historic Girl Scout Uniform Kits available for troops to borrow. Click on Program Resources on our Reservations Site to reserve a Historic Girl Scout Uniform Kit.

If you have any questions about GSOH history or donating items, please email the CAT Team at history@gsoh.org.

Discover more GSOH History with CML!

The Cultural Assets Team has partnered with the Columbus Metropolitan Library to create a digital collection of historical items from our council's archives. This collection contains newsletters, photographs, and other historical items from all across the council.

LEARN MORE