CLUB HISTORY
The early history has been compiled from bits and pieces, from conversations with old
members, old newsletters and retained files. The photo history thumbs exhibited on the left side of this page can
be clicked to see a large photo in its own window. |
1970's
President: 1970,1971-Donald Stewart, 1972,1973-Ray Hunter,
1974-Jerry Provorse, 1975,1976-Barbara Hunter, 1977,1978-Clem Hayes, 1978,1979-Al Henne
The club applied for and received one of the first "Open Space" property designations from Snohomish
County. This recreational property protection eliminated the constantly increasing property tax burden and requires
that the use of the land remain as defined.
The Archers started another range in 1971, the FITA range, which took a couple of years to become usable. It was
originally called the "mud flat range" and later the West Target Range. From sometime in the mid 60's
we had a whole slew of the top ranked archers in the nation, with our members receiving 4 out of the 41 invitations
issued for the National Olympic Team tryouts in 1970. Ed Eliason was the most successful of our amateur archers
making several Olympic Teams. We also had several of the top professional archers in the country as members. Our
archers set several national and world records.
The club's Sportsman Newsletter was produced on a mimeograph and the mailing list was a collection of small metal
address plates used in a large addressograph machine.
By the mid 70's most of the scheduled projects had been completed, including the shot shack addition, and the club
settled down to a more normal routine, of holding matches and taking care of the public shooters. Membership continued
to increase as more people learned of the facility and the club's membership peaked at about 800 members by the
late 70's and then began to decrease.
1980's
President: 1980,1981-Al Henne, 1982,1983-Don Hyde, 1983,1984-Ray
Hunter, 1985-Don Hyde (deceased), 1985-Ed Burkley, 1986-Harry Hayes, 1987-Ed Burkley, 1988,1989-Vic Alvarez
The club did little development from the mid 70's to the mid 80's, except to try to extend the rifle ranges by
allowing the Corps of Engineers and other military construction units to come and play with their big equipment
whenever possible. The archers expanded their field course to 28 targets. But the club was essentially in a low
maintenance mode and concerned itself with club politics, social events, and matches. This was a period of limited
disposable club income and the various club committees were constantly competing for the few funds available. The
dues were kept low at $34 and the new member initiation fee was set very high...$100/$125.
A newsletter editor/typist was hired and the newsletter was printed outside, then assembled at the club. The mimeograph
was scraped.
About 1986 it was decided that using Range #1 was too much of a hazard to our neighbors and shotgun without proper
safety baffles and it was shut down completely. The new baffle lines, the new range shed and the concrete shooting
benches took about 4 years to complete and by 1990 our original range had been transformed into a first class 300
meter highpower range.
In 1988 the Board determined that the over-use of alcohol at the club was a risk we could no longer take and completely
banned the use of alcohol on the property. After a great deal of in-fighting, the club reaffirmed that decision
in 1989 and again in 1990. We lost a good many old members during this dispute and we hit a low of about 500 members
in 1989.
The member list was computerized and mailing labels were used for the newsletter. The addressograph machine was
scraped. An accountant was hired to keep the club books.
The annual budget passed the $200,000 mark.
Because the heavy use of the facilities since the mid 70's, without adequate maintenance, had taken its toll, the
club was faced with a lot of projects to schedule. The first major project was to finish the perimeter fence which
was less than half completed. Next we paved the shotgun road to save the annual effort and expense of maintaining
the gravel road. The next major project was to rebuild the pistol range baffles which were completely shot up and
rotted out, and to get rid of all the old tires which were used for a backstop. A modular baffle design was developed
which would provide the ability to better maintain the baffles over time and that design has become a standard
for all clubs in the area.
Hired an assistant/pistol rangemaster.
From 1986 to 1994 one of our members, Chris Alvarez, set virtually all the National Junior pistol records and all
the National Collegiate pistol records and won over 100 National Championships. |
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