The Boy Scout Councils: St. Joseph Valley to LaSalle

The documented succession — Northern Indiana Council, 1973–1991; LaSalle Council from 1991

The succession: South Bend's Boy Scout council has carried four names, and the succession is documented in a single unusual source: the South Bend Tribune's obituary of William Fox (29 May 2008), whose lifetime of service ran through them in order — the St. Joseph Valley Council, the Tri-Valley Council, the Northern Indiana Council, and the LaSalle Council. The federal structure's own list of defunct councils fixes the datable links: the Northern Indiana Council, number 165, seated at South Bend, was founded in 1973 and ended in 1991, merging that year with the Sawasabee District of Southwest Michigan, number 270, to form the La Salle Council, which kept number 165. The first council's founding year — the St. Joseph Valley Council's charter — is not established in the sources reached for this account, and the succession prints from its documented anchors rather than from a supplied date.

The present council: The LaSalle Council is headquartered in South Bend and serves eight counties in northern Indiana and southwest Michigan, with more than 4,000 youth and adult leaders in its own count; John M. Cary is its chief executive in the public record of office. It reported the second-highest percentage membership growth among the nation's 245 councils in 2023, up twenty-one percent, and a further five percent in 2024, aided by a 1,350,000-dollar Lilly Endowment grant over three years — the council's figures as reported in Michiana Business News of December 2024. Its camps stand on their own ground and are printed at the boundary: the Wood Lake Scout Reservation and Camp Tamarack at Jones, Michigan; Camp ToPeNeBee at Michigan City, Indiana; and Rice Woods. None is in South Bend; the council is.

Sources:

1. South Bend Tribune, obituary of William Fox, 29 May 2008 — the council succession: St. Joseph Valley, Tri-Valley, Northern Indiana, La Salle.
2. Boy Scouts of America, defunct-council list — Northern Indiana Council (165), South Bend, founded 1973, defunct 1991, merged with the Sawasabee District of Southwest Michigan (270) to form La Salle Council (165).
3. LaSalle Council, organizational materials — the South Bend headquarters; eight counties; 4,000-plus youth and leaders; the camps and their locations.
4. Michiana Business News, December 2024 — the 2023 and 2024 growth rankings and the 1,350,000-dollar Lilly Endowment grant.