Though millions of people may be unfamiliar with Ernest Thompson Seton, they’ve nonetheless been influenced by his principles and his philosophy of character building through outdoor education. He co-founded the Boy Scouts of America.
A consummate naturalist, Seton was also a prolific author, illustrator, artist, and lecturer. A man of probing, unremitting curiosity, he logged, detailed, and drew an impressive selection of animals—eclectic creatures ranging from the peetweet (spotted sandpiper) and garter snake to the lynx and Artic fox—in an equally striking host of surroundings. From the Adirondacks of New York to the Northwest Territories to Yellowstone National Park and the Colorado Rockies, Seton’s raw inquisitiveness led him deep into the most faraway areas of the country.
Natural-Born Curiosity
Born in England as Ernest Evan Thompson on Aug. 14, 1860, he emigrated as a young boy to Lindsay, Ontario, with his parents and family. (Ernest was the 11th-born of 14.)His father Joseph Logan Thompson was once a well-off ship owner but suffered financial setbacks in England and struggled as a farmer in Canada. The family moved to Toronto in 1870. In “Trail of an Artist-Naturalist: The Autobiography of Ernest Thompson Seton,” Ernest described escaping to nature to cope with and heal from one of his father’s especially angry beatings.
As Ernest developed into young adulthood, he strained to develop his interests in nature against his father’s aspiration for him to be an artist.
His first known painting, a depiction of a sharp-shinned hawk, was finished when he was 16 years old. But it was the essence beneath the appearance that most intrigued him: What and how did this animal eat? What were the distinct qualities of its tracks? How did it interact with other animals to ensure its survival?
The father’s idea of the son’s future prevailed for at least a few more years. Seton enrolled at the Ontario College of Arts, before traveling to England to further his artistic schooling at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. He started classes in January 1881, but was plagued by sharp pangs of distress and ill health and returned to Canada about seven months later.
In his autobiography, Ernest wrote that on his 21st birthday in 1881, he was presented by his father with a whopping bill for $537.50 (more than $16,500 in today), listing the complete expenses of raising him. Ernest was terribly stung by the audacity of the demand and by his father’s perceived selfishness and callousness. But the boy vowed to pay back every single penny. Though it took him some time, he ultimately paid back his father in full. Perhaps as an expression of lingering hurt, he adopted the last name of “Seton” from a distant relative of Scottish nobility.
In 1882, he moved to Carberry, Manitoba, where the near-magical effect of the western frontier experience—a world so full of things and so empty of people—deepened his interest in scientific writing. Subsequently, he moved to New York City where his drawings of nature drew interest from Dr. C. Hart Merriam, and Seton was assigned the job of illustrating his book on mammals. Also in New York, he landed the task of producing drawings for the “Century Dictionary.”
In 1893, the expert wolf hunter in Seton was drawn to northeastern New Mexico by the challenge to capture a gray wolf known as Lobo. Ranchers in the area had placed a bounty on the elusive Lobo, and, in time, Seton and others trapped and killed Lobo’s mate Blanca. Lobo followed the blood scent trail of his mate to Seton’s house and soon all four of Lobo’s limbs were immobilized in a collection of traps. Seton released the injured animal and, with a powerful mixture of revulsion and reverence, watched it die.
Seton’s grisly pursuit of Lobo changed his perspective on the purpose and role of predators in the ecosystem, and many of his beliefs about conservation and protection evolved after his stalk and kill of Lobo.
From Young Vandals to Woodcraft Indians
In 1902, a group of boys vandalized the fence on his property, known as Windygoul. He saw this incident as an opportunity to impart life-changing moral lessons. He invited them to camp in teepees on his property over their Easter vacation from school and, after that, invited the boys to return in the summer. In the full presence of the woods, he declared the boys a tribe, had them elect their own leaders, and taught them woodworking skills. He published a series of articles for youth entitled “Ernest Thompson Seton’s Boys” in the Ladies’ Home Journal, describing the camaraderie of this group. Motivated to recruit more youth to nature, in July 1902, the Woodcraft Indians were formed, the name reflecting Seton’s abiding interest in Native lore and crafts.The fourfold Woodcraft Way emphasized the physical, the mental, the spiritual, and the need to be of service. Nine of the original principles of Woodcraft included categories focused on recreation, camp-life, the magic of the campfires, raising personal expectations, as well as finding the picturesque in everything—from the slug on the ground to the sun in the sky.
In 1903, Seton released “Two Little Savages,” a semi-autobiographical book replete with recollections of the open freedom of Canadian woods and suggestions of youthful activities with an outdoor focus.
The Boy Scouts of America
A series of conflated events and circumstances led to the formation of the Boy Scouts of America. In 1909, Chicago publisher William D. Boyce (1858–1929) became lost on a trip in London, and a scout courteously and altruistically came to his rescue. Impressed by the scout’s sense of duty, Boyce sought out a meeting with Baden-Powell.On Feb. 8, 1910, Boyce incorporated the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). Illustrator and youth leader Daniel Carter Beard (1850–1941) is also credited with merging his youth group Sons of Daniel Boone into the BSA.
Because some of the naturalist and educational principles espoused in Seton’s “Birch-Bark Roll” dovetailed with the BSA’s scouting ideals, he was designated the first Chief Scout of the BSA, an important part of the organization’s core establishment.
The first “Official Handbook” of the Boy Scouts of America bore the names of Seton and Baden-Powell on the cover, a fusion of Seton’s “Birch-Bark Roll” with information drawn from Baden-Powell’s “Scouting for Boys.”
Seton Village in New Mexico
Seton moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1930, and, one year later, he became a U.S. citizen. Now part of Santa Fe’s expansive literary and artistic community, he designed and built his “castle,” a 32-room, 6,900-square-foot stone house and museum for his extensive collections, drawings, and writings.He also created Seton Village, which initially covered about 2,500 acres with numerous adobe houses, a print shop, a craft shop, and a barn, all positioned around a plaza. In the rugged depths of Seton Village, Seton died in 1946.
His more than 40 books purportedly sold in the vicinity of 2 million copies. His heirs sold the castle and the remaining land to a nonprofit educational organization in 2003. In 2005, during renovations, the colossal structure was destroyed by fire, leaving only the original walls.
Though perhaps not as familiar of a name as, say, John Muir, Ernest Thompson Seton’s legacy is similarly deep-seated as one of the founding fathers of the Boy Scouts of America and a source of our collective values.
