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Straight-arrow fun and games: Pennsylvania Bowhunters Festival
returns for 52nd year of family fare
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| A pair of girls welcome folks to a past Pennsylvania Bowhunter's Festival in Sullivan County. |
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By RON HOSIE
Editor's note: This article was written for the inaugural issue of "Sylvan Splendor: Outdoors in the Endless Mountains," the Towanda Printing Co.’s new quarterly magazine. It will be available free of charge at area hunting clubs, sporting goods shops, convenience stores and other fine business locations.
The weather is just right. The leaves on the tree-cover over the surrounding hills are just beginning the annual transition from green to yellow to vibrant red and orange, and a touch of fall invigorates the air.
A few thousand men, women and children, casually dressed in jeans, T-shirts, baseball caps and such, roam the 90 acres of the Sullivan County Fairgrounds at Forksville, Pa. in the Endless Mountains region.
In one area at the bottom of a rise in front of a stand of trees, dozens of archers at a time form a shooting line, with quivers slung over shoulders or around waists, bows drawn taught. Off to the right, out of a red, pine board utility building, an ungainly object emerges and bounds over the grass, about 42 yards from the archers, its head and antlers bobbing. Pssszzzzzeeettt. Arrows fly. The critter shudders with each strike of an arrow, the brightly fletched shafts pointing straight back to the shooters. Again and again, the critter is hit. But it continues to move steadily right-to-left. Then it swivels and returns. Pssszzzzzeeettt. More arrows fly, some striking their target, many more missing the mark.
It’s the famed mechanical running deer, mounted on a motorized contraption and propelled along a track making yet another appearance at the annual Pennsylvania Bow hunters Festival, promoted as the premier bow hunting event in the Northeastern United States. Sherwood Schoch, of Dushore, a former national field archery, and six-time state archery, champion, as well as the festival’s longtime volunteer publicist, goes so far as to call it the world’s largest gathering of bow hunters. Last year, 6,000 people passed through the festival’s gates, he said, with around 2,500 archers registered to participate in various shooting events.
The 52nd annual event is this year – Sept. 19-21.
It’s a big deal for Sullivan County, Pennsylvania’s most sparsely-settled county, whose population about doubles when the festival is held. It’s not just the size of the gathering, and its reputation among archers, it’s the not-for-profit civic-mindedness of the event that also distinguishes it. The county turns out an army of volunteers to organize and run the festival, and the proceeds are used to underwrite good works and support vital community organizations.
A promotional brochure explains: "Our Organization consists of a 13- member board, a 50+ member operations committee, and about 400 volunteers who help during the festival. No one involved in organizing or running the festival is paid for their services or reimbursed for any personal expenses."
The event, which costs a modest $15,000 to put on, has raised as much as $40,000 in its most profitable year, Schoch said. "All the revenue is poured right back into the county." Scholarships are awarded and money is contributed toward such worthy causes as maintaining fire trucks, ambulances, little league facilities, 4-H, food pantries, victim services, the library and more. "It’s all volunteers… all the money made is given back to the county for the needy," Schoch says, proudly paying tribute to the work of those who donate their time.
In 2006, one of them received a special tribute. Sullivan County resident Richard L. Holcombe Sr., now 92, was presented the Karl E. Palmatier Award of Merit. The award was conceived by the Professional Archers Association to recognize administrative excellence and untiring contributions to the sport of archery. It is now a partnership of the association and the Archery Hall of Fame and Museum in Springfield. Mo. Holcomb was honored "for creating the first known running deer target for use by bow hunters practicing for their sport." It became the symbol of the annual Pennsylvania festival and continues to draw shooters from near and far who line up for the opportunity to put an arrow into the mechanical critter as it bounds and bobs along its track.
Dick and his brother Vell, of Laporte, are credited with developing the first three-dimensional targets for archers in 1954. Out of that collaboration, came the running deer target that debuted at the inaugural bow hunters’ festival in the mid-1950s. Since then, according to the narrative accompanying the Palmatier award, an estimated 150,000 archers have shot more than more than 2 million arrows at it, chewing up hundreds of the replicas.
The origins of the festival are a testimonial to ingenuity, entrepreneurship, and rural, small-town enthusiasm fueled by friendship and camaraderie. "The popularity of the life-like targets so excited bow hunters whenever they saw them the idea for the festival was developed," the tribute narrative said. At one point, a consensus emerged from the then-small group of about 40 local archery enthusiasts known as the Sul-Bow-Buck, that lots of others might take a liking to the moving target practice.
A booklet compiled by the Sullivan County Historical Society, titled, "Pennsylvania Bowhunters Festival: The first 30 years," illuminates the festival pioneers’ early days. "How long the idea of a bow hunters’ festival had been brewing in the minds of local entrepreneurs is not known, but they were well-organized and kept notes on their many planning meetings….
"They have dreamed up a real wing-ding affair under the able leadership of chief enthusiast Vell C. Holcombe (award winner Richard’s brother). Vell is an undertaker by profession and skilled cabinet maker by avocation, but he eats and sleeps bow hunting and the festival is his brain child."
The booklet also stated: " At that time, did they know how well the festival idea would catch on, that it would turn out to be the biggest bow hunters event of its kind in the country, and that it would still be in existence; years later?
"Probably not…"
But, a partnership was developed with the Chamber of Commerce and, as they say, the rest is history.
The event receives considerable publicity and is promoted by the state tourism agency. The Visitpa web site, for example, describes it this way: "The ‘Pennsylvania Bow hunters Festival,’ (is) the oldest gathering of Bow hunters in the world. The three-day event offers a wide variety of educational and shooting activities and events designed to prepare Bow hunters for the upcoming archery season and entertain them at the same time. The Festival features the famous ‘Forksville Running Deer’ target, mechanical bear and turkey targets, pop-up and moving small game targets, a timed clay pigeon shoot, stationary targets set at variable distances, and three game trails designed to simulate bow hunting in a northern hardwood forest. All targets are McKenzie style 3-D targets. There are 60 vendors and manufacturers, clinics and seminars, entertainment, and great food," including the traditional barbequed chicken, corn-on-the-cob and baked potato and other fixings.
Schoch, the publicist, says the event is a great family affair. "We are a recreational and entertainment archery event, not a competitive event," he said during an interview. "Our foot-stomping, fun loving blue grass band has the main grandstand jumping on Saturday night and the audience loves them. They have been with us for 25 years."
He also said, "We have a long tradition and dozens of persons show up just to keep their patch collection in tact. They keep coming to associate with old acquaintances and simply to ‘be there’ another year.
He hopes you will be there, too.
IF YOU GO: The fairground is located on State Route 154 along the Loyalsock Creek near the Worlds End State Park in Forksville near the historic covered bridge. The festival Sept. 19-21 runs 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday. There is an admission price of $4 per adult for spectators. Shooters must register and pay a registration fee.
Hosie is the editor of The Daily & Sunday Review, which serves Sullivan and Bradford counties in Pennsylvania, and Tioga County, N.Y., and the weekly Farmer’s Friend which serves 35 counties in the Twin Tiers of Pennsylvania and New York. He can be reached at rhosie@thedailyreview.com or 570.265.1635.
The weather is just right. The leaves on the tree-cover over the surrounding hills are just beginning the annual transition from green to yellow to vibrant red and orange, and a touch of fall invigorates the air.
A few thousand men, women and children, casually dressed in jeans, T-shirts, baseball caps and such, roam the 90 acres of the Sullivan County Fairgrounds at Forksville, Pa. in the Endless Mountains region.
In one area at the bottom of a rise in front of a stand of trees, dozens of archers at a time form a shooting line, with quivers slung over shoulders or around waists, bows drawn taught. Off to the right, out of a red, pine board utility building, an ungainly object emerges and bounds over the grass, about 42 yards from the archers, its head and antlers bobbing. Pssszzzzzeeettt. Arrows fly. The critter shudders with each strike of an arrow, the brightly fletched shafts pointing straight back to the shooters. Again and again, the critter is hit. But it continues to move steadily right-to-left. Then it swivels and returns. Pssszzzzzeeettt. More arrows fly, some striking their target, many more missing the mark.
It’s the famed mechanical running deer, mounted on a motorized contraption and propelled along a track making yet another appearance at the annual Pennsylvania Bow hunters Festival, promoted as the premier bow hunting event in the Northeastern United States. Sherwood Schoch, of Dushore, a former national field archery, and six-time state archery, champion, as well as the festival’s longtime volunteer publicist, goes so far as to call it the world’s largest gathering of bow hunters. Last year, 6,000 people passed through the festival’s gates, he said, with around 2,500 archers registered to participate in various shooting events.
The 52nd annual event is this year – Sept. 19-21.
It’s a big deal for Sullivan County, Pennsylvania’s most sparsely-settled county, whose population about doubles when the festival is held. It’s not just the size of the gathering, and its reputation among archers, it’s the not-for-profit civic-mindedness of the event that also distinguishes it. The county turns out an army of volunteers to organize and run the festival, and the proceeds are used to underwrite good works and support vital community organizations.
A promotional brochure explains: "Our Organization consists of a 13- member board, a 50+ member operations committee, and about 400 volunteers who help during the festival. No one involved in organizing or running the festival is paid for their services or reimbursed for any personal expenses."
The event, which costs a modest $15,000 to put on, has raised as much as $40,000 in its most profitable year, Schoch said. "All the revenue is poured right back into the county." Scholarships are awarded and money is contributed toward such worthy causes as maintaining fire trucks, ambulances, little league facilities, 4-H, food pantries, victim services, the library and more. "It’s all volunteers… all the money made is given back to the county for the needy," Schoch says, proudly paying tribute to the work of those who donate their time.
In 2006, one of them received a special tribute. Sullivan County resident Richard L. Holcombe Sr., now 92, was presented the Karl E. Palmatier Award of Merit. The award was conceived by the Professional Archers Association to recognize administrative excellence and untiring contributions to the sport of archery. It is now a partnership of the association and the Archery Hall of Fame and Museum in Springfield. Mo. Holcomb was honored "for creating the first known running deer target for use by bow hunters practicing for their sport." It became the symbol of the annual Pennsylvania festival and continues to draw shooters from near and far who line up for the opportunity to put an arrow into the mechanical critter as it bounds and bobs along its track.
Dick and his brother Vell, of Laporte, are credited with developing the first three-dimensional targets for archers in 1954. Out of that collaboration, came the running deer target that debuted at the inaugural bow hunters’ festival in the mid-1950s. Since then, according to the narrative accompanying the Palmatier award, an estimated 150,000 archers have shot more than more than 2 million arrows at it, chewing up hundreds of the replicas.
The origins of the festival are a testimonial to ingenuity, entrepreneurship, and rural, small-town enthusiasm fueled by friendship and camaraderie. "The popularity of the life-like targets so excited bow hunters whenever they saw them the idea for the festival was developed," the tribute narrative said. At one point, a consensus emerged from the then-small group of about 40 local archery enthusiasts known as the Sul-Bow-Buck, that lots of others might take a liking to the moving target practice.
A booklet compiled by the Sullivan County Historical Society, titled, "Pennsylvania Bowhunters Festival: The first 30 years," illuminates the festival pioneers’ early days. "How long the idea of a bow hunters’ festival had been brewing in the minds of local entrepreneurs is not known, but they were well-organized and kept notes on their many planning meetings….
"They have dreamed up a real wing-ding affair under the able leadership of chief enthusiast Vell C. Holcombe (award winner Richard’s brother). Vell is an undertaker by profession and skilled cabinet maker by avocation, but he eats and sleeps bow hunting and the festival is his brain child."
The booklet also stated: " At that time, did they know how well the festival idea would catch on, that it would turn out to be the biggest bow hunters event of its kind in the country, and that it would still be in existence; years later?
"Probably not…"
But, a partnership was developed with the Chamber of Commerce and, as they say, the rest is history.
The event receives considerable publicity and is promoted by the state tourism agency. The Visitpa web site, for example, describes it this way: "The ‘Pennsylvania Bow hunters Festival,’ (is) the oldest gathering of Bow hunters in the world. The three-day event offers a wide variety of educational and shooting activities and events designed to prepare Bow hunters for the upcoming archery season and entertain them at the same time. The Festival features the famous ‘Forksville Running Deer’ target, mechanical bear and turkey targets, pop-up and moving small game targets, a timed clay pigeon shoot, stationary targets set at variable distances, and three game trails designed to simulate bow hunting in a northern hardwood forest. All targets are McKenzie style 3-D targets. There are 60 vendors and manufacturers, clinics and seminars, entertainment, and great food," including the traditional barbequed chicken, corn-on-the-cob and baked potato and other fixings.
Schoch, the publicist, says the event is a great family affair. "We are a recreational and entertainment archery event, not a competitive event," he said during an interview. "Our foot-stomping, fun loving blue grass band has the main grandstand jumping on Saturday night and the audience loves them. They have been with us for 25 years."
He also said, "We have a long tradition and dozens of persons show up just to keep their patch collection in tact. They keep coming to associate with old acquaintances and simply to ‘be there’ another year.
He hopes you will be there, too.
IF YOU GO: The fairground is located on State Route 154 along the Loyalsock Creek near the Worlds End State Park in Forksville near the historic covered bridge. The festival Sept. 19-21 runs 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday. There is an admission price of $4 per adult for spectators. Shooters must register and pay a registration fee.
Hosie is the editor of The Daily & Sunday Review, which serves Sullivan and Bradford counties in Pennsylvania, and Tioga County, N.Y., and the weekly Farmer’s Friend which serves 35 counties in the Twin Tiers of Pennsylvania and New York. He can be reached at rhosie@thedailyreview.com or 570.265.1635.
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