National outdoor archery contest targets Darrington

To folks in this part of the world, Darrington is the epitome of backwoods, hidden at the base of the North Cascades about an hour's drive east of Interstate 5.

But serious archers all over the globe know exactly where the tiny town lies.

"People who come here from Switzerland and New Zealand, they really think this is a gorgeous area," said Marv Kastning, a retired art teacher and president of the Darrington Archers. "They stay here for their whole vacations — discover the local swimming holes."

Though the town has twice hosted the World Field Archery Championships, the upcoming six-day event is a more modest undertaking: the National Field Archery Association's outdoor championship, which opens Sunday.

Nearly 800 archers and family members from North America are expected to take over the timber town, population 1,100, camping in the high school's ballfields and renting homes from families.

"Most of the archers really like it," said Marihelen Rogers, archery-association secretary, who has rented the home of a high-school teacher. "If there were a couple more motels and a McDonald's, that would be good. But it turns into a real social event because they all have to entertain themselves because there's nothing to do."

This is the ninth time since 1982 that Darrington has hosted the 58-year-old tournament.

The archery fields stretch across 190 acres of woods — 40 controlled by the Darrington School District, the rest owned by Snohomish County — just south of the town's cluster of elementary-, middle- and high-school buildings.

Images of Sherwood Forest may flit through the minds of visitors as they wander the trails that meander through the property, with its fern-covered floor, mossy snags and nurse stumps sprouting huckleberry saplings.

Competitive archery is a bit like a round of golf. But instead of 18 holes of fairways and greens, each Darrington course offers 28 numbered targets scattered through the forest. Archers shoot arrows from brightly painted stakes along trails. The stakes mark off set distances for shots.

Targets — the familiar concentric rings and bull's-eyes — are affixed to bales of straw beneath open-sided cedar sheds. In some rounds of competition, those targets will be replaced with illustrations of animals such as bear, deer, elk and grouse.

"You're just putting an arrow into a target rather than a ball into a hole," said Kastning, 65. "There are more archers than there are golfers, but we don't have Bing Crosby and those people to pay to sponsor the sport."

Darrington is among only three cities recognized as national archery-tournament sites. Next year, the contest will be held in Watkins Glen, N.Y., where it also was held last year. The third site is in Blue Springs, Mo.

Kastning surprised himself in 1981, when he persuaded the national association to schedule its next championship in Darrington. All he had to offer were the raw woods, with no trails or courses yet carved out.

Victory meant a year of hard work building six full archery ranges, eight miles of trails, 3,000 feet of road, 15 concession stands and 14 outdoor pit toilets. The community donated $40,000 and about 9,000 hours of work.

Inmates helped, carrying bales of straw and installing targets. Kastning, who was teaching a special-education class, got permission from the school district to create a curriculum that allowed students to cut and paint 1,100 wooden course markers, make the tournament program and dig trails.

This year, the Darrington Horse Owners Association will serve daily breakfasts at the elementary school, while high-school cheerleaders — calling themselves the "Robin Hood Girls" — will serve lunches on the ranges.

It's been three years since the last major tournament, so many targets had to be rebuilt, the stakes needed repainting, and the trails required repair.

The local IGA grocery donated blue paint to freshen the town's main-drag monument to archery — a three-story steel sculpture that Kastning designed in the early 1980s. When the town first hosted the world championships in 1988, Kastning created a banner with that image for the opening ceremonies.

The silhouettes of three archers — a man, woman and child — are depicted in the artwork, "The World Family of Archers."

About 500 men, women and children are expected to compete in this year's national championship, which has categories for different shooting styles. Divisions run from traditional, wooden bows to high-tech, fiberglass bows with fiber-optic siting systems, cams to reduce the "weight" of the drawn bow string, magnification devices, stabilizers, and mechanical aids to pull and release the arrow.

Though the Olympics don't allow any newfangled aids, those devices are the rule among archers in the tournament's "pro" division, who this year will compete for a several-thousand-dollar prize. About 40 pros usually compete in the larger North American competitions.

David Nations, vice president of the Darrington Archers, belongs to the elite bowhunter bare-bow group, using nothing but his naked eye, bare fingers and instincts to aim and fire his arrows.

Serious archers compare their sport's aesthetics to the subtle aspects of golf. Golfers enjoy watching their golf balls arcing through the air, and archers get a thrill when their arrows soar toward a distant target.

"You get hooked," said Nations, who sharpens saws at the local Hampton lumber mill. "It's like going on a good fishing trip. It's a thrill for me to go out there and shoot a real good score on a round."

Diane Brooks: 425-745-7802 or dbrooks@seattletimes.com