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Order of the Arrow History
The Order of the Arrow (OA) was founded by Dr. E. Urner Goodman and Carroll A. Edson in the summer of 1915 at the Treasure Island Camp of the Philadelphia Council, Boy Scouts of America. It grew out of a desire to emphasize that the good Scout camper is not only proficient in the skills of Scoutcraft, but also practiced the principles of the Scout Oath and Law. It was intended to make these Scout principles more effective in the lives of Scout campers. It focuses particular attention on making cheerful service and brotherhood working realities to its members.

As a means of establishing all this without preachment and within the understanding of Scouts who go camping with their troops, it was announced to them at the outset that at the end of their camping experience, each troop might choose those who best exemplified these traits to become members of the Order of the Arrow.

Other Order of the Arrow lodges were soon organized in nearby councils, and in 1921 representatives of those lodges met together in Philadelphia for the first national meeting. It became an official program experiment of the Boy Scouts of America in 1922. In 1934, the Boy Scouts of America officially approved the Order of the Arrow. In 1948, the OA, recognized as the BSA's national brotherhood of honor campers, became an official part of the national camping program of the Boy Scouts of America. Since then, it has become a recognized part of the Boy Scout program and is used in all but a few councils throughout America.