The Red River Archers archery club has come a long way from the days when indoor shooting opportunities were limited to three months in the winter in the basement of the clubhouse at Lincoln Park Golf Course. Club members set bales between the golf course and the river the rest of the year.
Today, the archery club has a well-lit, all-season indoor range on North 42nd Street in Grand Forks.
According to John Brewinski, a retired educator and longtime club member who's been shooting archery since the early 1970s, the archery club moved into the basement of the old Riviera in downtown Grand Forks in the mid-1980s after leaving Lincoln.
The building on North 42nd Street came up for sale in 1994.
"We looked at our finances and said, 'yeah, we can swing it,'" Brewinski recalls.
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An old machine shop, the building didn't look like much at the time. Gradually, though, members of the club chipped in to make improvements, and various grants, such as those offered through the federal Pittman-Robertson Act, have helped pay for projects and equipment such as the 3-D targets.
"Those grants have been a godsend," Brewinski said. "They've really helped us out."
The club completed a 40x60-foot expansion to the range late in 2005, and a combined heating and cooling system provides heat in the winter and air conditioning in the summer.
Members of the archery club can access the facility 24 hours a day and seven days a week throughout the year.
"You can come in and shoot as long as nothing is going on," Brewinski said. "We've got guys coming in at 5 in the morning and midnight."
Besides the Tuesday 3-D league and Thursday 300 league, the range hosts a youth archery league in February and March and a handful of tournaments throughout the year. Organizations such as the Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts and 4-H also use the facility.
Membership to the Red River Archers costs $120 annually, plus a $10 key deposit, and there's a first-time membership fee of $10 and one-time building fee of $25 for new members. The fee for the 3-D league is $65, and the 300 league fee is $40.
Info: Red River Archers, www.redriverarchers.com .
