The Independence Day-Archery Connection

When the 4th of July holiday rolls around, I always stop and think about the history of our great nation. For some fun trivia, one U.S. president was born on that day: Calvin Coolidge, the 30th president, in 1872. For modern-day trivia, about $211 million will be spent on fireworks and more than 74 million people will have an Independence Day cookout tomorrow. So what does Independence Day have to do with a bowhunting blog? Well, I’ll be shooting my bow alongside my nephews over the holiday weekend so I dug up five fun archery facts to share with them—and you.

• Historians believe people have been using bows and arrows for at least 25,000 years, possibly longer, based on arrowheads discovered in Africa. The practice first started in the Stone Age as a safer method of hunting by the cavemen.

• Archery was first included as an Olympic sport in the 1900 Olympic Games. It was discontinued in 1924 due to a lack of international rules, but it was reintroduced at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany.

• The first compound bow was made around five hundred years ago.

• Archery is the national sport of Bhutan. It’s so popular that nearly every village has its own archery range.

• Last but not least: Supposedly, golf was banned in Scotland in 1457 by King James II because too many men were wasting their time golfing when they should have been practicing with their bows and arrows!

Happy 4th of July! I hope you have a great holiday weekend and that you, too, find some time to break out your bow.