Boy Scouts seeking to add 19 Harford County acres

The Boy Scouts are trying to officially add 19 acres in northern Harford County to one of their campgrounds, but have to go about it in a really old-fashioned way.

 

The Baltimore Sun reports that no owner is listed on the property at the Broad Creek Memorial Scout Reservation, which is a 1,700-acre campground that the Boy Scouts have operated for more than 60 years. Because no one owns the property, the Boy Scouts are working through the process from the Colonial Era of securing a land patent.

 

After the Revolutionary War, residents bought property by securing a land patent from the state but that all but stopped once property was surveyed and sold.

 

The last time a private entity successfully applied for a land patent was in 2002.