Lodge History

In 1992, the Buttes Area Council, Golden Empire Council, and the Mount Lassen Area Council merged as a result of Western Region reorganization. The new Council was given the name of the "Golden Empire Council". The council's headquarters was established in Sacramento, California, with field offices established in Redding, California; Chico, California; and Marysville, California.

As a result of this merger, the national office of The Order of the Arrow dictated that the new council would have until January 1, 1993, to merge the 3 lodges. Wil Conner was named as the Lodge Adviser for the new lodge. To prepare for the upcoming merger, Wil Conner, lodge adviser, drew up five merger agreements. Each merger agreement was distributed to the individual lodges (Kowaunkamish Lodge, Mayi Lodge, and Tehama Lodge). Each lodge was given time to review the agreements before scheduling a meeting. Several meetings were held where the agreements were discussed and plans were made to hold a work fellowship at Beale Air Force Base to approve and accept the merger.
The work fellowship was scheduled for October 1992 with Matt Conner selected as the Fellowship Chairman and Frank Glick was appointed as the Fellowship Adviser. The fellowship was later rescheduled for December 11, 12, 13, 1992 due to arising conflicts with schedules, facilities, and planning. Frank Glick designed and ordered a patch for the fellowship. It served as a reminder of the three lodges that were merging and the formation of the new lodge #47.
One hundred fifty scouts and scouters converged on Beale Air Force Base to take part in the new lodge's first fellowship. Mayi Lodge served as the host lodge. After several meetings on Friday night and Saturday morning, a merger agreement was announced and approved by the three existing lodge council of chiefs. It detailed out a one-year plan to integrate the three lodges into one "super lodge." Each of the existing lodges would be renamed as tribes, with the tribe chiefs serving with the elected lodge chiefs to form the lodge council of chiefs. Each tribe would be further broken down into chapters and the chapters had the opportunity to divide into clans. The clans would service the rural areas where travel distances would prohibit members from participating in chapter events.
Ron Cowen was selected as the Kowaunkamish Tribe Adviser, Richard Lozano was selected as the Mayi Tribe Adviser, and Bob Nelson was selected as the Tehama Tribe Adviser.
One of the major concerns addressed at the fellowship was the distribution of the existing lodge's funds and how to fund the new lodge. It was agreed that each of the existing lodges would give a portion of their funds to the new lodge. The existing lodges would keep the funds in a chapter account for their membership's use. All money would be controlled through the lodge adviser for finance.
Saturday night of the fellowship the first lodge officers were elected. Each of the existing lodges would have a block of votes they could cast in any way they saw fit. P.T. McEwen, Section W3B Chief, Wil Conner, Lodge Adviser, and Jim McDaniel, Section W3B Adviser were present to officiate the election.
Brian Osterhout was elected as the first lodge chief. Dan Householder was elected as the Vice-Chief for Program. Coady Pruett was elected as the Vice-Chief for Communication. Ketan Patel was elected as the Lodge Secretary/Treasurer. The lodge council of chiefs was convened on Sunday morning and the by-laws were approved.
The council of chiefs set future meeting dates and elected to extend the period for nominations for lodge name, newspaper name, and totem.
In January, the lodge council of chiefs elected to name the new lodge "Amangi Nacha" with the Quail as the totem. The newspaper was named "Se-Kah-Ke Squawks." Gerry Albright was named as the first adviser. It was a bi-monthly newspaper printed at Herburger Publishing in Galt, California.
The lodge printed two press runs of the flap. The S-1 was a fundraiser flap. It was larger than the general press run and was limited in its production. The S-3 was a general issue flap to be worn by all members.
Wil Conner appointed his advisers to help him serve the lodge. They were: Bob Nelson, Administration Adviser; Frank Glick, Trading Post Adviser; Matt Conner, Newspaper Adviser; Craig Tanner, Inductions Adviser; and Bill Rogers, Camping Adviser.
The lodge held its first officer training in 1993 at Camp Pollock. It was called the "Takachsin." The training was modeled after the Mayi Lodge's "Takachsin" program and the National Leadership Seminar outline.
Adam Craig was elected as the second lodge chief at the fellowship held at Beale Air Force Base and Doug Wacker was appointed as the Lodge Program Adviser.
On August 28, 1994, the lodge Council of Chiefs voted to change the lodge by-laws and restructure the lodge. The tribe system was discontinued. This was done to "bring the chapters closer" to the lodge and facilitate the process. The lodge was now composed of 13 chapters. Doug Wacker was selected as the next Lodge Adviser in October 1995. Also in October 1995, Greg Frith was elected as the lodge chief. Bob Nelson was appointed as the Lodge Finance Adviser and Larry Frith was appointed as the Lodge Program Adviser.
In October 1996, Josh Ramsey was elected as the lodge chief, and Bob Nelson was named as the new Lodge Adviser.
In October 1997 Jeff Allen was elected as the lodge chief with Bob Nelson continuing as Lodge Adviser. In October 1998, Carl Krigbaum was elected as the lodge chief, with Bob Nelson continuing as Lodge Adviser.
Then in October 1999, Lewis McCrary was elected as the current lodge chief, and Larry Frith was named the new Lodge Adviser.

A full listing of Lodge Chiefs and Lodge Advisers can be found at the Lodge website here > http://www.amanginacha.org/about/history/chiefsadvisers

In January 2019, two of the Golden Empire Councils District geographic boundaries were merged.  The Trailblazer District and the Yolo District were merged to form the Yolano District.  The current count of 12 districts was reduced to 11 districts.  In August 2019, the Curahee Chapter and the Tito-Wa Chapter merged to create a new Chapter, named “Achach”, with a chapter totem of a Yellow-billed Magpie, transitioning from 12 chapters to 11 chapters.


In January 2020, the Golden Empire Councils District geographic boundaries changed.  The current count of 11 districts was reduced to 7 districts.  In August 2020, the Council of Chiefs transitioned the chapters from 11 chapters to 7 chapters.  Each chapter discussed options for new chapter names, chapter totems, and chapter meeting locations.