LA PINE, Ore. — A little over five years ago, the Three Rivers Archers took shape in the backyard of JR Lorimor’s home in La Pine with 11 kids wanting to learn to become ethical hunters and conservationists.
The idea to teach and mentor young outdoors people started with a casual conversation between Lorimor and a group of middle school wrestling coaches where they felt a need and a want from the youth to learn the craft. A curriculum was created, and the popularity quickly took off where the Three River Archers curriculum is taught in parts of Washington, Nevada and Montana.
“It was a lot of fun,” said Caitlin Lohner, who joined the Three Rivers Archers three years ago in Lorimor’s backyard. “They had three stands out to about 40 to 50 yards, so there was a bunch of targets.”
In early August, the Three Rivers Archers which won the St. Jude’s Archer Nock out Cancer National Championship in 2018 and has numerous of Scholastic 3-D Archery state and national champions built Kelly Young Memorial Park, a public archery range where no membership is required and the permanent home to the Three Rivers Archers.
Kelly Young Memorial Park is located just north of La Pine High School. There are several targets set up as far 60 yards away. There will soon be classes (many are free or less than $10) open to the public for those wanting to learn how to fire a bow accurately.
“I think it is really nice that everyone can come out and shoot,” said Lohner, a 14-year-old champion archer who took to the sport after receiving a bow for her 11th birthday. “Especially since it is just open to the community and that everyone can shoot.”
But the curation of the park did not come without its hiccups. Building a shooting range on public property proved more difficult than hitting a bullseye from 60 yards out.
The park is located within city limits, on La Pine Parks and Recreation property with La Pine High School visible through the trees. As Lorimor, the president of Three Rivers Archers, put it: “a perfect storm of a nightmare for building a shooting range.”
It took two and a half years of cutting through bureaucratic red tape and negotiating before finally breaking ground and starting clearing out trees to build the shooting range and an adjacent parking lot in February.
Then COVID-19 hit while the area was still being cleared out of trees and shrubs.
“We were in ‘oh crap’ mode,” Lorimer said.
Kelly Young Memorial Park was solely funded by local sponsors such as Apline Striping, Jack Russell Excavation, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the Oregon Hunters Association. Barely into the project with the economy shut down, the project was at a standstill. But the sponsors with help from ODFW helped make sure the project to help complete the project.
“The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife stepped up,” Lorimor said. “They had some grants available to help us finish the park to what you see now.”
