Photo by Eric Keith / St. Joseph News-Press / Purchase this photo

Boy Scouts Sam King and Aaron Preuss benefit from the forge-tending skills of Metalwork instructor Spencer Walker at Camp Geiger last week.

In the 21st century age of computers, Facebook, iPods, video games, Twittering and text messaging, the Pony Express Council of the Boy Scouts of America thrives.

“As fast-paced and computerized as our world is today, the local Scout programs focus on basics and values of character, citizenship and leadership,” said Alan Franks, the Pony Express Council’s new leader.

Mr. Franks accepted the council job with 201 troops, Cub packs, Explorer posts and Venture crews in November. The council includes three Northeast Kansas counties and 15 Northwest Missouri counties, with more than 8,200 Scouts.

Mr. Franks lived at Camp Geiger until late spring, when his family arrived in St. Joseph.

“If I’d not stayed there, I wouldn’t have a true appreciation for Geiger,” he said. “Every weekend something’s going on. I witnessed the commitment of volunteers who worked on off-season projects.”

Each summer, the council focuses on Camp Geiger, as about 1,600 Scouts come to spend a week living in tents while learning new skills. Geiger offers more than 50 programs for campers.

The newest activity rings with the sound of clanging hammers. Boys grab a pair of tongs and stick pieces of metal into a fire that can reach 2,000 degrees. Then their gloved hands use the tongs to move the red-hot metal to a waiting anvil as they pick up a hammer and start sculpting with blows and taps.

Unfortunately, the program had to turn away about 30 boys because there just isn’t space, said Spencer Walker, the instructor. He’s hoping to come back next summer and expand the program.

A staff member at Geiger, Mr. Walker, 18, came from Leavenworth, Kan., to spend the better part of summer working outdoors.

“Teaching a craft is what I can give back to Scouting,” he said.

Summer staff includes a lot of young men, such as Mr. Walker, who travel to St. Joseph. One young man has been flying in from Florida for nine summers, but most come from towns around the region.

“You can feel the atmosphere here, it’s welcoming and warm,” said Joel Mueller, 18, who lives in Kansas City, Kan. Mr. Mueller directs a staff of five full-time and one part-time assistants who teach younger campers basic skills such as rope work, fire-building, cooking and camping.

The job has its difficulties. One day, there was a lack of wooden spars, no plastic spoons and not much rope.

“I had to use some problem-solving skills and harvest some brush piles, borrow spoons from the camp kitchen and make do by being careful about rope use,” he said with a laugh.

Mr. Mueller puts part of his life on hold each summer while he’s at Geiger. “I’ll be back till I can’t afford it, and hopefully that will be after I’m through with college,” he said.

Bruce Bielby and his son Noah live in Winston, Mo., where they are a part of Boy Scout Troop 167. But for two years now in the summer, they turn off the electricity at their residence and move to Camp Geiger.

“I have memories of being a kid out here, and wanted my son to experience it, too,” Mr. Bielby said.

He wasn’t always certain he’d be able to share Geiger with his son, because after two years of Cub Scouts, Noah quit. But a few years later, the boy decided to join.

“I had to see what all the fun was about,” Noah said.

He got tapped during his first summer at Geiger to become a member in the camp’s honor program — the Tribe of Mic-O-Say. “I felt proud because I’d achieved something really good,” he said.

Scouts have the chance to gain, at their own pace, a tremendous amount of exposure to items of interest that come with a lot of 21st-century implications.

Noah Bielby, for instance, has been earning merit badges and his favorite is environmental science. “I have the badge and I’m still learning about it,” he said.

Eric Siemens, 12, learned how to use a computerized global positioning system, or GPS, at camp.

“He could take that knowledge into a career, like surveying, or use it to take his family someday from Yellowstone to the Grand Canyon,” said Ken Siemens, Eric’s father.

Mr. Siemens said he was amazed as he watched his son Wednesday night stand with other 12- and 13-year-old Scouts in front of about 800 people and perform songs and a play.

“Without Scouting, he’d never be doing these things at this age,” Mr. Siemens said.

Troop 216 at St. Paul Lutheran Church had a group at Geiger this past week, and Mike Steele took time off from work to be at camp with his son Collin.

The kids run the troop with a chain of command, and adults are there only as advisers, Mr. Steele said. They’re learning to do things for themselves.

A water balloon fight got a little out of hand one night. “The boys negotiated a peace treaty, complete with rules of engagement for future battles,” Mr. Steele said.

The council has the basic Scouting components. It needs to continue reaching out and serving more youth, as well as engaging more adults and leveraging community resources that already exist, Mr. Franks said.

The new director continues to look to the future. One challenge — Mr. Franks sees it as an opportunity — is working with boys in St. Joseph’s growing Hispanic community. The council is beginning to reach out in this area, Mr. Franks said.

The Boy Scout camp reaches out in other ways. It offers local groups the chance to use their confidence and team-building program called Project Cope. And the council has begun construction on a new and dynamic shooting range — for everything from BB guns to shotguns, archery and tomahawks — that would be capable of hosting local, regional and national events after it opens in 2010.

Marshall White can be reached

at marshall@npgco.com.