Basic bowhunting publications just like the 5 written by Saxton Pope present useful insights to our sport’s historical past.
August 01, 2022
About 20 years in the past, I used to be conducting archery seminars at a sports activities present in Northern California. Simply earlier than I went on stage, a gentleman walked up with a e book in his hand. It was a leatherbound first version of Saxton Pope’s 1923 basic, “Searching With The Bow And Arrow.” The person opened the duvet, and there was Pope’s unique signature, plus a sheaf of yellowing papers that seemed to be arrow-testing notes handwritten by Pope himself.
I used to be shocked when this fellow instructed me he had discovered the e book in a neighborhood pawn store and bought it for $10. He needed to know what it was price. I had a seminar to present, however I requested him to fulfill me after the presentation. My pleasure pale when the man failed to indicate up. His discover was absolutely a one-of-a-kind piece of bowhunting historical past found just a few miles from the place Pope spent a lot of his grownup life. I’ll all the time marvel the place that e book went, and for what value. I’d have cherished to personal it myself.
Within the years that adopted, I managed to acquire first editions of all 5 books and pamphlets Saxton Pope wrote earlier than his premature demise in 1926 at age 51. My copy of “Searching With The Bow And Arrow” was additionally signed by Pope, however has no private notes with it.
Bowhunting historical past is vital. All of us ought to know the way this glorious sport advanced. The late, nice Fred Bear was one in every of my heroes, and arguably did extra to advertise archery searching than another single particular person. I had the nice fortune to interview Fred at his unique manufacturing facility in Grayling, Michigan, about 15 years earlier than his demise. My personally autographed copy of “Fred Bear’s Discipline Notes” is expensive to me as a result of I frolicked with the nice man on a number of events.
A broadly publicized property public sale in Squaw Valley, California, proved to be a bonanza for an archery historical past buff like me. Doug Walker was the late Writer of “Western Bowhunter” and “Nationwide Bowhunter” magazines, plus a lot of books. He collected many archery mementos throughout his lengthy and storied profession. In his early days as a gross sales rep for Bear Archery, Doug hunted and rubbed shoulders with well-known early archers like Howard Hill and Fred Bear.
I traveled from Wyoming to California to attend that public sale. My rental automobile was virtually doing wheelies once I left.
Tucked within the backseat was Howard Hill’s famously inscribed “Little Sweetheart” searching bow, and a searching arrow signed by Hill. Howard gave each to Walker, together with photographs to show it. Fred Bear’s personally carried searching knife set and compass have been nestled beside the Hill gadgets, and so was Artwork Younger’s wooden-arrow transport field, made by his buddy Saxton Pope earlier than the duo hunted Africa within the Twenties. In that field have been a number of Artwork Younger arrows, together with one with the broadhead Younger commercially marketed after his Africa journey. Within the backside, scattered willy-nilly, have been greater than 100 Artwork Younger broadhead blanks.
Maybe probably the most close to and expensive to me from that public sale is an obsidian arrowhead and obsidian knife given to Walker by Lee Pope — Saxton Pope’s son. Each have been knapped for Pope by his buddy Ishi throughout Ishi’s all-too-short keep on the College of California, the place Pope labored as a doctor.
I used to be born and grew up lower than 20 miles from Ishi’s dwelling territory in Northern California, which makes these artifacts treasured to me. The “final wild Indian in America” was one of many forefathers of recent bowhunting.
Video That Could Curiosity You
Not a few years in the past, an antiquities skilled in my dwelling state of Wyoming obtained and marketed one other Ishi arrowhead. A collector must be cautious about fakes, however as was the case with Doug Walker’s gadgets, this one checked out in spades. Charles Miles, a well-known archaeologist, really sat with Ishi in 1914 on the UC campus and watched Ishi knap this remarkably serrated head from milky white bottle glass. Miles was 20 years previous and a college scholar on the time. He treasured this Ishi arrowhead for many of his life. It’s featured in a photograph on web page 29 of his 1962 basic e book, “Artifacts Of North America.” The authenticity of this arrowhead is bolstered by the truth that Miles by no means realized to knap arrowheads himself. There was no means he may have “manufactured” the piece.
An Ishi-knapped arrowhead from greater than 100 years in the past is particular. However how a few stone knife aged at 1,000 years previous?
Native American stone instruments are ample in North America, and authorized to search out and carry on non-public land in most states. I’ve found lots of of flint, chert, and obsidian arrowheads in locations the place I’ve hunted and hiked, together with within the coronary heart of California’s Ishi Nation. Earlier than you look, please observe that maintaining artifacts discovered on public land is a violation of federal regulation.
Among the finest finds may be accidents, just like the stone knife simply talked about. An unusually formed level of stone appeared after a tough rain alongside a trench I had dug on my Wyoming property. Minutes later, after rigorously eradicating extra soil with my arms, I discovered myself holding a big knife blade usual centuries earlier than. The notched tail indicated {that a} wooden or bone haft (deal with) as soon as had been lashed to the knife. Based mostly on the form and dimension, one native skilled aged my discover at 1,000 to 2,000 years previous. It offers me chills to carry it in my hand as an historic hunter as soon as did!
Different such blissful accidents happen to fortunate folks. One man I do know discovered an previous longbow at an vintage mall in Cody, Wyoming. He knew simply sufficient to be suspicious about what it actually was. A cautious evaluation by an authenticating skilled proved it to be one in every of Saxton Pope’s private searching bows; in all probability carried on Pope and Younger’s grizzly bear hunt in Yellowstone Park in 1920.
Their information was well-known clothing store and outdoorsman Ned Frost, who lived within the Cody space. No one is aware of if this Pope bow was a memento saved for some time by Frost’s household, or if Pope left it behind for one more motive. However Pope’s bow-making model was distinctive — from the way in which he formed the limbs to the tight twine wrapping on the deal with. This merchandise is real.
You or I may solely be so fortunate!
In my thoughts, nothing beats bowhunting. However within the low season, a stroll down reminiscence lane with historic artifacts is fairly darn thrilling, too!
Discovering Historic Artifacts
Archery artifacts are like gold — they’re wherever you occur to search out them. However in case you want to personal a bit of bowhunting historical past, there are glorious methods to get on monitor.
Good collectibles, together with Fred Bear gadgets, are commonly marketed on-line. As I write this, for instance, a reasonably low-number Fred Bear Signature Takedown Bow is being provided on eBay. Fewer than 300 of those consecutively numbered bows have been produced within the Eighties earlier than Mr. Bear handed away. Every was signed by Fred and contains a flawless end, 22-carat gold-plated {hardware}, and a good-looking hardwood presentation case.
In case you Google “archery collectibles” or related phrases, you may be pleasantly shocked at what’s out there.
Property auctions and different auctions additionally may be good bets. One of many niftiest collectible auctions happens on the biennial Pope and Younger Awards Conference. I obtained my very own Fred Bear Signature Bow in 2015 on the P&Y Conference Public sale in Phoenix, Arizona.
Maybe most particular of all are unintentional finds by means of pawn outlets, vintage shops, and the labeled sections of newspapers. That’s to not point out ample Native American artifacts that also present up on non-public land after rainstorms, floods, or freezing winter climate. Discovering archery treasures is half the enjoyable…having fun with them is equally satisfying.
