On October 9-11, 1998, a great and rather unique event, The Jersey Jamboree, took place at Waterloo Village in Stanhope, New Jersey. More than ten thousand Scouts from all over New Jersey and nearby states attended. The October, 1999, issue of Scouting Magazine carried an excellent article about the Jersey Jamboree .

Inspired by the National Jamboree Bands, the organizers of the Jersey Jamboree decided to include a Jersey Jamboree Band. Scott Smith was selected to direct the band. The call for musicians went out to Scout units across the state. Both Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, as well as their leaders, were eligible to participate.

For National Jamboree Bands it's just not practical to get together before the Jamboree. The Jersey Jamboree Band, however, did meet and practice by sections and as a whole a number of times during the summer of 1998 at the Mount Allamuchy Scout Reservaton in Sussex County. However, about 20% of the band members were from Cranbury, NJ, and for them the trip up to Allamuchy was too long to do regularly. So they called themselves the "Cranbury Patrol" and practiced separately in Cranbury until the Jamboree.