Cowiche Archery

Somewhere around 1960 my father heard there was going to be an outdoor film shown down at the local theatre.  A man name of Fred Bear was going around the country showing 35mm films of his archery exploits.

This particulr film was about Fred Bear crawling up on a huge Grizzly bear with his recurve bow, intent upon sticking an arrow into the vitals of that monster. 

Back in those days there were no sportsmans channels on TV and very few hunting films.  Go to Sportsmans Wharehouse today and you will find rack after rack of hunting, fishing, and outdoor video.  Not so in 1960. 

So you can imagine the excitement a 10 year old kid had.  I just knew this had to be the bravest man in the world.  I remember the bear was eating something, can't remember what, but I do remember hearing the bear crunching bones. To make a long story short Fred made that shot and I think that bear is now in the Fred Bear Museum.

I met Fred again around 1965 or so at a local bow shoot put on by the Natapoc Bowmen of Wenatchee Washington.  They held their shoots then in the Tumwater Canyon area just outside Leavenworth Washington.  There were no 3D shoots then, no scoring, no winners or losers, just a bunch of guys getting together to sling some arrows, tell some tall tales, eat potluck,  enjoying each other, and being in the woods. 

There was a running deer target, (A reasonable facsimily of a deer anyway), hung on a wire somehow.  And when they let the deer slide, we let the arrows fly.  It was great fun!  Standing next to me on the shooting line was Fred Bear.  He hit that deer every time.  I dont think I ever hit it, but Fred always had something encourageing to say to me.

As I shook Fred Bears hand that day,  I remember the gentle look in his eye, and the smile on his face, and as kids do, I knew he genuinely enjoyed shooting with me that day, even though I was "just a kid."

That's how this bow building all got started.  People mostly built their own archery equipment in those days.  There were no compounds and the terms "Traditional and Primitive Archery" had not been coined yet. 

There was no division between archers.  You either shot a recurve or a longbow.  We all had one attraction.  The mystifying and primordial gratification that comes from looking at the target, pulling back the string, and watching as somehow the arrow flew through the air to it's mark.

Fred Bear, Howard Hill, Ben Pearson, Pope and Young, Maurice Thompson, Art Laha, Chester Stevenson, Byron Ferguson, Glen St. Charles, The Stotler Brothers, and many others; these are my heros, and the men who taught me the joy of archery.  

Still can't hit that durn running deer target!