CAMP TSO-LE-TSU-KE

In the summer of 1945 only, the Council operated Camp Tso-Le-Tsu-Ke on Grasshopper Creek in Harrison, TN.  "Tso-Le-Tsu-Ke" means "grasshopper" in Cherokee, and the name was chosen by D. Frank Hinnant.  The exact location is described as "half-mile back from Chickamauga Lake . . . 20 river miles from Chickamauga Dam . . . out old Birchwood Pike off Highway 58," and "one half-mile up Grasshopper Creek from Lake Chickamauga . . . about 35 miles from downtown Chattanooga."  The Council decided to operate Camp Tso-Le-Tsu-Ke in 1945 instead of Camp Tsatanugi for a number of reasons, not the least of which were the "endless string of freight and passenger trains roaring past shatter[ing] all illusions of ‘back to nature,’" according to a 1945 newspaper article. 

One special note in the brochure announced that "the Cherokee Council has just completed the organization of a lodge of the Order of the Arrow, the Camp Honor Society.  Several scouts will be nominated for membership each week on the basis of their performance as a good camper."  This was the beginnings of the "Chickamauga Lodge 293" which conducted an induction but never became active in the Cherokee Area Council.   It wasn’t until 1957 that the Council formed "Talidandaganu’ Lodge 293" that is still active today.