The headline in The Madera Tribune read, “Scout Jamboree Cancelled Due to Polio.” The decision to cancel the first Boy Scout World Jamboree in the United States was made because of an outbreak of infantile paralysis in Virginia.
Plans had called for 30,000 boy scouts to assemble in Washington, D.C., from the 21st to the 30th of August, 1935. With the outbreak of the dreaded disease, however, telegrams were sent to scout troops all over the country. On Sunday afternoon, just as scouts from Madera were preparing to leave on the train from Fresno, the message came. “Don’t come to Washington, D.C.”
Five Madera lads, Red Arnold, George Barnett, Dean Curry, Jack Desmond, and Jim Desmond, along with Assistant Scoutmaster Keith Emmert, were part of the large contingent of scouts who had gathered in Fresno that day to depart for the jamboree.