Badger Boys State adopted a program based upon the experience of the Illinois Boys State which was sponsored by the Illinois American Legion and had been in operation since 1935. Four hundred eighty-four high school juniors attended the first session of Badger Boys State at St. John's Military Academy in Delafield, Wisconsin, June 16–23, 1939. The project proved very successful and was unanimously authorized to proceed as a state program by the Wisconsin American Legion Convention in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The individuals responsible for founding the Badger Boys State program officially on April 8, 1939 were: Due to the limited capacity of St. John's
Washington State Route 546 out of the state highway system for several years. Badger Road was re-added to the highway system in 1957 as a branch of SSH 1B, which ran north–south between Bellingham and the Canadian border. During the 1964 state highway renumbering, the trunk of SSH 1B became SR 539, SSH 1A became SR 9, and the Lynden branch of SSH 1B became SR 546. The renumbering was codified by the state legislature in 1970. In the 2000s, WSDOT began long-term planning for the SR 546 corridor, including determining replacements or retrofits for several intersections in northern Lynden that were the site