Three Harbors Council - Order of The Arrow

Order of The Arrow

Upon its founding, the Three Harbors Council was temporarily served by two lodges:

• Mascoutens Lodge No. 8 was formed in 1972 when Oh-Da-Ko-Ta Lodge No. 153 (chartered in 1939) and Chippecotton Lodge No. 524 (chartered in 1957) were merged as part of the Racine County Council and Kenosha County Council merger that formed Southeast Wisconsin Council.
• Mikano Lodge No. 231 was founded in 1943. Its name means "Turtle" in the Ho Chunk language.

The terms of the Three Harbors Council merger (dated October 1, 2011) specified that the two lodges should determine how best to consolidate within 18 months of the council merger. In 2012, the Lodge Creation Committee was formed of equal numbers of youth from each lodge with limited adult involvement, aside from the lodge's primary advisers. This committee met multiple times leading up to the 2012 summer camp season to decide on the Lodge Executive Committee structure, how the new lodge is going to utilize all four camps, a chapter system for the larger geographic area, the officers and election cycle, etc. The committee solicited lodge name, totem, and patch ideas from the membership through July 1st, 2012.

On the morning of July 8th, 2012, the youth of the committee decided and voted on the new name and totem. The decision became official at 10:08 am at LeFeber Northwoods Camps. It was announced that the name and totem would be unveiled at the New Lodge Kickoff on October 20th, 2012. However, it was not until January 6th, 2013, that the Kanwa tho Lodge 636, was unveiled by the youth committee that created it. The Kanwa tho Lodge is named after a subgrouping of the Potawatomi tribe of indians headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Their totem is the panther, as Kanwa tho translates to "Panther Band".