Off-The-Mark Arrow Leads To Showdown Over Archery Range

In ``The Arrow and the Song,'' the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow penned one of his most famous rhymes: ``I shot an arrow in the air. It fell to earth I know not where.''

There's no mystery about where an arrow fell after it was shot into the air near Magnuson Park Archery Range last August. It lodged firmly between the upstairs windows in Caraline Miner's house, a few hundred yards away.

There it remains to this day - a pointed reminder to Miner and her neighbors of their determination to force the Seattle Parks and Recreation Department to remove the threat of errant arrows.

Archers and concerned citizens will plead their cases at a public meeting on the future of the archery range at 7:45 p.m. Jan. 19 in the Park Board Room, 100 Dexter Ave. N.

While Miner, whose house was hit by an arrow, and Ty Devlin, executive director of the Seattle Archery Federation, listened and took notes, park commissioners were given a preview of their options at yesterday's board meeting.

Karen Ristau, the Park Department's citywide programs manager, traced the range's history, showed a video of the physical layout and spelled out three possible ways to ensure public safety.

They were:

- Add safety wiring to portions of the range and turn its operation over to the archery federation, which would lock the facility when not in use, assure that a trained archer would be on duty at all times and would provide $1 million in liability insurance.

- Move the range to a surplus Navy building at Sand Point, where it would be enclosed by walls and roof.

- Eliminate the range and let the federation attempt to lease facilities at archery ranges at the University of Washington or Shoreline Community College.

Ristau said the range, moved from Carkeek Park to Magnuson Park in August 1985, should pose no problem if it is properly used; there is a bluff behind the targets. She added that there had been only two complaints about errant arrows (both in 1985) until last year, when there were three.

In addition to the arrow that lodged in the Miner home and resulted in closing the range, a 36-inch arrow went through a window and embedded itself in a steel door in a condominium near the archery range in March; another arrow pierced the roof of a nearby federal fisheries building in April.

Devlin said about 90 archers have signed a petition asking that the range be kept open. She said an expert archer had examined the scene and determined that the arrow that struck the Miner house was not shot from the range. The federation, she added, is prepared to assume liability for the range and to establish stringent rules for its operation.

Miner said her group has about 500 signatures on petitions asking that the range be moved. She said she has been told by an archer who investigated the scene that the arrow in her house most likely was fired from the range.