As E. Urner Goodman, then a 25 year old scoutmaster, walked along Chestnut Street in downtown Philadelphia, PA, in May, 1915, he heard newsboys hawking the Philadelphia "Inquirer's" headlines, blaring the sinking of the Cunard oceanliner "Lusitania" hit by a U-boat's torpedoes within view of the Irish coast. Urner was busy with plans that would also have far reaching effects, for he had agreed to take the job of Camp Director at the Philadelphia scout council's camp perched on idyllic Treasure Island in the Delaware River.

What he had in mind ended up leaving a lasting imprint on thousands of American youth in the twentieth century. Urner's thoughts in 1915 were focused on development of methods to teach the scouts attending summer camp that skill proficiency in Scoutcraft was not enough; rather, the principles embodied in the Scout Oath and Law should become realities in the lives of Scouts. As a means of accomplishing this without preaching and within a boy's interest and understanding, he decided to launch an innovative program that summer based on peer recognition and the appeal of Indian lore. Troops would choose, at the conclusion of camp, those boys from among their number best exemplifying these traits, who would be honored as members of an Indian "lodge". Boys so acknowledged in the eyes of their fellow scouts would form a fraternal bond joined together in a richly symbolic brotherhood.

Assistant Camp Director Carroll A. Edson helped Urner research the lore and language of the Delaware Indians who had inhabited Treasure Island, which they combined with characters from James Fenimore Cooper's "Last of the Mohicans", to develop dramatic induction ceremonies for the "Order of the Arrow", as the fledgling honor society was dubbed. Even today, these rites make a lasting impression on scouts who have been elected to the "Order of the Arrow".

By 1921, the idea had spread to a score of scout councils in the northeast and the first national meeting of the Order of the Arrow was held. Although the OA was initially viewed with suspicion by some scouters as a secret society, if not an affront to the egalitarian ideals of scouting, legendary Chief Scout Executive James E. West permitted those councils desiring Order of the Arrow lodges to establish them as an "experimental" program under a "National Lodge". Not until 1948 was E. Urner Goodman's innovation fully integrated into the Scouting program.