Archery range to honor late Iowa Speaker Don Avenson

CEDAR RAPIDS - The Natural Resource Commission is expected to give final approval for naming a northeast Iowa archery range for Don Avenson, former speaker of the Iowa House of Representatives, who died May 19.

Avenson enjoyed the outdoors and was an avid archer, according to Scot Michelson, DNR northeast district parks supervisor. He said the suggestion to name the archery range at the Volga River State Recreation Area came from DNR Director Chuck Gipp, of Decorah, a former House member.

Avenson sparked the development of the recreation area near Fayette about 70 miles north of Cedar Rapids, according to Michelson and Travis Wymer of West Union, a member of Echo Valley Archers. After leaving the Legislature in 1990, Avenson was a lobbyist at the Capitol. Among his clients was the Iowa Bowhunters Association.

The 120-member archery club helped develop the new range at the recreation area where a dedication ceremony will be held at 4 p.m. Tuesday, July 18 pending approval of the naming by the Natural Resource Commission.

'We'll cut a ribbon and unveil a sign,” Michelson said. 'It will be pretty simple. Nothing fancy.”

The archery club had an indoor range at the Fayette County fairgrounds in West Union, Wymer said. When it was asked to host a Rinehart 100 3D-target competition it worked with the DNR to develop an outdoor range at the Volga River State Recreation Area. Rinehart, which makes solid, self-healing foam targets, hosts the competition in several states. The Volga River competition has drawn about 600 archers each of the past two years.

The new range includes two loops, Wymer said. For the Rinehart 100 from Aug. 18-20, one loop will be North American game animal targets and the other African and exotic animal targets - life-size elephants, lions, giraffes and other animals.

The rest of the year, Wymer said, one loop with bag targets is available to any archer who wants to shoot.

Wymer never met Avenson, but thinks it is fitting to dedicate the range to someone who was instrumental in developing the recreation area and enjoyed archery.

'I guess the moral of all of this - it was a really cooperative effort between DNR and our club to get the range built,” he said. 'This is one of the instances an outside group worked with DNR to make something new that people of any age can enjoy.

'That's how you get things done.”

The Natural Resource Commission plans to meet at 9:30 a.m. Thursday at the Henry Wallace Building, 502 E. Ninth St., Des Moines.

l Comments: (319) 398-8375; james.lynch@thegazette.com