want to see this.’ It would be something where maybe an archery club meets out here once a month and they do a little maintenance on the targets and “For now, we’re going to try it with these six targets. We’d like to expand to discuss future plans. Something very small. Doesn’t need to be a giant orga12,” Bonk said. “Realistically, we’d like to get an elevated platform for archers. nization, but we expect that to kind of form as people shoot out here.” The (school) archery teams will shoot out here a lot, but the vast majority of The county will conduct the standard maintenance of the park like mowthe public are going to be hunters practicing. We do want to get to broading, and new bathrooms are being added to the area. Bonk said they hope heads one day. We do want to get to an elevated platform with multiple to add a shelter area in the future to make it a location that people want to targets off of that. utilize in groups with friends and families. “The other thing that can happen here is we have a nice trail that could The area around Spruce Hill Park and much of Douglas County are part of function as a 3D range. With the trout in (Spruce Creek) now, we’d have to deer permit area 213. That hunt area had 2,770 archery deer hunters in 2021. look at that, but there’s a way you could shoot here and walk back where we That is the fifth highest number of archery licenses sold of any permit area could have a small 3D range in the trees.” in Minnesota. The county used to deal with vandalism at Spruce Hill Park, but a unique The interest in having a place where archers can shoot has long been fishing opportunity with trout being stocked into Spruce Creek since 2019 has there in Douglas County. It now exists with the potential that the six-target drawn more people to the park. park at Spruce Hill is only the beginning. “We haven’t had a lot of (vandalism) since COVID. I attribute it to the “I always look at things in long time periods,” Bonk said. “You could see trout, but the other thing with COVID is people were just outside and in our building this and having a group of guys and gals get together and make an parks,” Bonk said. “You see that everywhere, but this place has benefited. I archery club and see where they could take it to. It doesn’t have to stay here. think archery is also a positive because as trout fishing dies down late in the This could just be the start of it.” summer, archery is going to pick up toward the fall. Bad stuff doesn’t happen when there’s eyeballs around.” Bonk is hopeful that with an archery park starting up, an archery club near the area may develop made up of people who want to see the archery THE NEARLY 97-ACRE SPRUCE HILL COUNTY PARK, LOCATED park grow. IN NORTHEAST DOUGLAS COUNTY ABOUT 4 MILES EAST OF “(Growth of the park) will take financing, but what we really need is an MILTONA, OFFERS PLENTY OF OPEN SPACE TO HOLD AN archery club to form,” Bonk said. “When I was in Willmar, we started an ARCHERY RANGE. THE SHOOTING AREA WILL BE LOCATED ON archery range in the city. The Little Crow Archers kind of came in and took THE BALLFIELD ON THE WEST SIDE OF SPRUCE HILL PARK it over. There will be upkeep. The county will be able to help with this. An ROAD AS PARK GOERS ENTER OFF OF COUNTY HIGHWAY 5. archery range is pretty cheap, but what you end up needing for upkeep overall is a club to do that and then dictate the growth of it. To say, ‘Hey, we really Continued from page 8
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