Vintage Archery Collector , Can you put a name to the face?

[450 marlin]

I stopped by Larry Avery's today to buy a few items out of his collection. Here is a framed photo of an early collector, lots of horn tipped longbows, Grumley's?, some neat stuff. Any of you collectors that have been at it a while have a name for this man?
 
 
 
 

[johnnyrazorhead]

I 've seen the picture before,I wanna say it's Chester Stevenson in the "Den of the Old Bowhunter" .I'm not home to look it up but that would be my guess.

[450 marlin]

Thanks John,
Sounds like a great book too , I just ordered one to add to the winter reading...Roy

[Hobow]

You are correct John, Oregon's very own Chester Stevenson.

In the background of that last picture you can see a couple of his "snakey" bows, the story goes that Fred Bear sent him a pair of wavy billets that he had been saving for himself with a note to the effect that "he didnt have time to use them but knew that Chester could do something with them" sorry for my paraphrasing but I don't remember verbatim...

It's a good book and he's a great story teller...

Brad

[oldbohntr]

Yeah, there was a seminar on him at the PBS meeting in Portland last year.  He didn't collect all that equipment, he made it. Maybe not every piece, of course, but he was an accomplished bowyer and craftsman who never stopped making things.  Yes, the book is a great read..

[Tom Phillips]

Chet was the man.He made very COOL archery tackle and check out in the book the amount of Squirrels he killed with stick & string!!!

[Liquid Amber]

We are lucky old Chet came to archery and brought his camera along and recorded Oregon's early archery history.  It amazes me the amount of archery tackle he produced during the period he was actively involved in archery.  

Ol' Chet was a prolific "manufacturer" of tackle.  

Later in life Chet spent much time making, shooting and writing on crossbows.  He developed a repeating cross bow and took deer with it during legal seasons.  His greatest interest in the crossbows was for small game hunting.    

Photos of Chet's Den have been published in many places.  If my memory serves me, I believe there are two "Dens."