Link to: Moe District Page

Moecomdws district comprises the communities of northern Summit County, including Cuyahoga Falls, Stow, Boston Heights, and Peninsula.

Where did the name MOECOMDWS come from?

Our district's name was developed by Mr. Park Welton, a scout leader in Cuyahoga Falls.

In Mr. Welton's day, the local district was known as the "Falls District" because of the concentration of scouting activity within the city of Cuyahoga Falls.  As the organization of scouting expanded into the surrounding communities, a more representative name was needed.

Mr. Welton was keenly interested in Indian lore and studied the history of the tribes that once frequented the area.  He discovered that the Cuyahoga River was the common meeting place for Native Americans traveling from the east and from the west.  The eastern Indians came down from Lakes Ontario and Erie all the way to the Falls of the Cuyahoga.  At this point they met the great western tribes who had come from the other Great Lakes or up the Ohio, Muskingum and Tuscarawas rivers up through the Portage Lakes area.

This common meeting area at the Falls became a national trading post.  Many tribes were represented, but Welton chose the following nine tribes to form the name MOECOMDWS using the first letter in the name of each tribe:  Mohawk, Oneida, Erie, Chippewa, Onondago, Mohican, Delaware, Wyandotte and Seneca.  Mr. Welton felt the name MOECOMDWS would mean "neutral territory" since this best described the area that tribes met for peaceful trading.

So in 1951 the MOECOMDWS district came into being and since that time has been referred to as Mighty Moe.

Copyright © 2000 Great Trail Council, BSA