New Archery Park..................................................8

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“For now, we’re going to try it with these six targets. We’d like to expand to 12,” Bonk said. “Realistically, we’d like to get an elevated platform for archers. The (school) archery teams will shoot out here a lot, but the vast majority of the public are going to be hunters practicing. We do want to get to broadheads one day. We do want to get to an elevated platform with multiple targets off of that.

“The other thing that can happen here is we have a nice trail that could function as a 3D range. With the trout in (Spruce Creek) now, we’d have to look at that, but there’s a way you could shoot here and walk back where we could have a small 3D range in the trees.”

The county used to deal with vandalism at Spruce Hill Park, but a unique fishing opportunity with trout being stocked into Spruce Creek since 2019 has drawn more people to the park.

“We haven’t had a lot of (vandalism) since COVID. I attribute it to the trout, but the other thing with COVID is people were just outside and in our parks,” Bonk said. “You see that everywhere, but this place has benefited. I think archery is also a positive because as trout fishing dies down late in the 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 park grow.

“(Growth of the park) will take financing, but what we really need is an archery club to form,” Bonk said. “When I was in Willmar, we started an archery range in the city. The Little Crow Archers kind of came in and took it over. There will be upkeep. The county will be able to help with this. An 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 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 discuss future plans. Something very small. Doesn’t need to be a giant organization, but we expect that to kind of form as people shoot out here.”

The county will conduct the standard maintenance of the park like mowing, and new bathrooms are being added to the area. Bonk said they hope to add a shelter area in the future to make it a location that people want to utilize in groups with friends and families.

The area around Spruce Hill Park and much of Douglas County are part of deer permit area 213. That hunt area had 2,770 archery deer hunters in 2021. That is the fifth highest number of archery licenses sold of any permit area in Minnesota.

The interest in having a place where archers can shoot has long been there in Douglas County. It now exists with the potential that the six-target park at Spruce Hill is only the beginning.

“I always look at things in long time periods,” Bonk said. “You could see building this and having a group of guys and gals get together and make an archery club and see where they could take it to. It doesn’t have to stay here. This could just be the start of it.”

THE NEARLY 97-ACRE SPRUCE HILL COUNTY PARK, LOCATED IN NORTHEAST DOUGLAS COUNTY ABOUT 4 MILES EAST OF MILTONA, OFFERS PLENTY OF OPEN SPACE TO HOLD AN ARCHERY RANGE. THE SHOOTING AREA WILL BE LOCATED ON THE BALLFIELD ON THE WEST SIDE OF SPRUCE HILL PARK ROAD AS PARK GOERS ENTER OFF OF COUNTY HIGHWAY 5.

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