Saxton Pope and the yew bow

[heydeerman]

I am reading through Saxton Popes Hunting With the Bow and Arrow again and the first part of the book is most interesting where he gives the details about Ishi and then goes into the qualities of yew wood and building yew bows. I have never shot an all wood yew bow, I am sure the performance of the modern glass backed bow would be hard to match but the tests and detailed descriptions of his results are very good with his handmade yew bows. I did a google search for yew longbow and other than a few European bowyers the St. Charles family was the only American bowyer that showed up on the first 2 pages, I am sure there are more.

Every time I read this book it seems I learn something I "missed" from the last time I read it. If you have not read it you owe it to yourself to get a copy.

If you shoot an all wood longbow I would like to see you post here with your thoughts.

[Overspined]

That was an excellent book. I love reading about the fearless Lions they hoped to kill, but couldn't get close enough with a bow without a charge.  They WERE king of the jungle until the modern rifle. I don't recall exactly how many they tried to kill before they got one without the backup rifle finishing off a charging lion, in the 20's I believe.  

Those early accounts of archery hunting are amazing.

[2treks]

http://www.donadamsarchery.com/bows.htm  

I googled this, and Mr.Laclair was the first "Image" that showed up.

 http://us.yhs4.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=don+adams+bows&fr=chr-frontier-s&toggle=1&cop=&hspart=frontier&hsimp=yhs-frontier1&type=frontier_portal_sa&ei=UTF-8

[Chuck Jones]

I've held one of Popes' yew longbows and one of Youngs' osage longbows in my hands. After reading several of their books; it was a humbling experience to connect with Pope and Young that way.

Popes' bow was finely made, but very bulky because of its' heavy draw weight. Youngs' osage bow was shorter and very workman like.

[heydeerman]

That would have been sweet to handle those bows. How did you manage that?

[raghorn]

His name is "Saxton" not Saxon?

[Chuck Jones]

Originally posted by heydeerman:
That would have been sweet to handle those bows. How did you manage that?

I helped unpack several bows for a PBS display at the Cloverdale Nationals one year.

[McDave]

John Strunk is a well known bowyer who makes yew self bows, as well as self bows made from other types of wood and laminated bows without fiberglass.  He is a regular visitor at trad archery meets around the west. I have two of his bows, and one of my friends has a couple more.  I did a brief search, and he doesn't seem to have a website, although his name results in a lot of hits.  He lives in Oregon, close to the source of his yew wood.

[Hud]

The bows used by Will and Maurice Thompson, Art Young, Chief Will Compton, and Dr. Saxton Pope that were in the Museum at Northwest Archery are in the Pope & Young Museum in Mn.

The last three links are from Pacific Yew (Jay St. Charles)

  http://www.selfbow.com/  

  http://www.selfbow.com/museum%20jpgs/muse1.html  

  http://www.comptontraditionalbowhunters.com/  

The last picture in the next link shows Dr. Pope shooting left handed, a common error when printing from negatives. One of the bows Art Young was shooting was named Old Horrible (80# Osage), it is in the P&Y Museum.

  http://www.selfbow.com/pny1.html

[heydeerman]

I just read last night about Old Horrible. He went into great detail on the making of that bow.

[Blackhawk]

Yes, the book is definitely a classic.

BTW, Pacific Yew Longbows are made by Jay St. Charles, and he makes a good one as does John Strunk.

[Liquid Amber]

"The bows used by Will and Maurice Thompson, Art Young, Chief Will Compton, and Dr. Saxton Pope that were in the Museum at Northwest Archery are in the Pope & Young Museum in Mn."

I don't believe this information about Will and Maurice Thompson's bows is accurate.

[nineworlds9]

I just sold an all yew ELB I had for a little while, sweet shooting bow and def had a little magic in it.  If you can get your hands on one to try its a def archery bucket list check off.

[Blackhawk]

Cliff,

I know you would not comment on the Thompson bows unless you had other reliable info or facts.

If the Thompson bows are not at the museum, then you must have other info where they are.  Do you know and can tell us?

I always love your penchant for historical accuracy.

[Liquid Amber]

I've never heard any claim to P&Y nor Northwest Archery owning bows of Will or Maurice Thompson.  You are assuming there are bows in question, I'm saying that I don't believe there were any bows in the first place and am curious to who is claiming otherwise.

Gene Hopkins is the only person owning a bow of Will's that has a chain of custody such to satisfy most folks I'm aware of.  Will's personal bows were donated to the Tacoma Museum and still there when I paid to have them professionally photographed four years back.  Maurice's personal bows and papers were given to daughter Jessie, who passed them on to her daughter.  Maurice's great-grand son Jeff Davis told me that when they moved in the 1950s, Maurice's bows disappeared[stolen] but his personal papers survived and are now in Emory University.  Five of the six arrows given Maurice by the NAA are still in the family in the Atlanta area.  

All personal bows of Will and Maurice were manufactured by others, so it is extremely difficult to valid prior ownership.  I have checked out other claims in the past and all have been dismissed fairly quick.

[Liquid Amber]

A photo showing all of Will's personal archery equipment being donated to the Tacoma museum was published in a 1930 something American Bowman Review.  I compared the equipment  in the photo against what is still there and found all the bows and all the arrows, boxes etc., were intact.  The only exception was that five of the arrows with broadheads shown in the photo were no longer in the Museum and no one could remember what happened [stolen] to them.     I always wanted to find someone claiming one of those arrows and match it against that old photo.  

[Liquid Amber]

Miss Billie Rounsevelle[Archer's Company] and later Whitney collected old archery equipment and several times mentioned[published] she had one of Will's or Maurice's bows used in the first NAA Nationals held in Chicago.  I'm not sure which because she claimed it belonged to Maurice who used it to win that first National.  Will won the first National, so it's not clear who's bow she was referring to.     I always wondered what happened to that bow.

I flew to Seattle and spent a day with Glenn and Joe St. Charles not long before they moved the museum.  They were most gracious hosts and for all practically purposes, opened their entire collection to me.  Glenn took time out of his day to spend time with me answering my many questions.  My wife was kept busy taking notes and photos.  I handle many of the old bows but have no recollection of any reported belonging to the Thompson brothers.  

It would be a valid assumption that if anyone had one of those bows, that the St. Charles Museum would be the place.  That's an easy mistake to make.

If anyone does have creditable information of the whereabouts of  bows of either Will or Maurice Thompson, I'd sure like the information.  As I mentioned earlier, the only one with a creditable line of custody outside of the Tacoma museum I'm aware of is Gene Hopkins'.  That doesn't mean there might not be another, its the only one I'm aware of, and I certainly don't know everything.  That's why I keep running down leads.