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About Illinois Valley news. (Cave City, Oregon) 1937-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 13, 2013)
Page A-10 Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, November 13, 2013 Cave Junction led the nation in wood arrow shaft manufacturing By Roger Brandt IVN Contributing Writer One of the leading producers of wood ar- row shafts in the United States started in June of 1953 in a small shed on Caves Highway about two miles outside of Cave Junction. Claude Reinoehl had worked in the timber industry for most of his life and, along with his wife Fran- ces, decided to start this business because ar- chery was rapidly growing in popularity and high quality wood arrow shafts were extremely difficult to get (2). Neither knew anything about arrow manu- facturing, and for that matter, didn’t know much about archery as became evident when Claude almost took out his eye when a bow he was try- ing to string snapped back and hit him in the face causing a severe contusion of the nerve that controls movement of the eye (1). The Reinoehl’s started their enterprise with a leased automatic lathe and a small mill outfit that was purchased along with other wood working tools. In seven days the Reinoehl’s were in operation and had turned out their first arrow shafts. The total capital investment to get production started was about $200 (equivalent to $1,700 in 2013) (4). In a way, they had a corner on wood ar- row shafts because the wood they were using was the Port Orford cedar, a tree that grows in a very small region, of which Cave Junction sits in the approximate center. The wood of this tree is considered ideal for arrow shafts because it is light weight and does not splinter. The wood can be handled all day by workers without the slightest danger of the handlers getting splinters in their hands (4). The business grew so fast that it was neces- sary to move out of the small shed behind their home and into a building on Redwood Highway near the town of Kerby. The demand for arrow shafts was high and the new plant ran for 24 hours a day and produced about 200,000 shafts per month, of which 150,000 were number one grade and 50,000 were number twos. The fac- tory was grossing between $6,000 and $8,000 per month (equivalent to $48,000-$65,000 in 2013) and used more than 300 cords of Port Or- ford cedar a year. In August of 1956, a fire quickly spread through the building and, in the span of about 15 minutes, burned the structure to the ground along with an estimated $35,000 in equipment arrow shafts (7). References and stock. This included about 250,000 to The compound bow was invented in 1966 300,000 squares of Port Orford cedar stored in and quickly became the bow of choice. These 1) Illinois Valley News, May 13, 1955. the drying room from which future orders were bows use pullys to increase the ease of pull- Hazards of archery learned by Reinoehl. to be filled. The fire moved so quickly that the ing back the string and dramatically increase 2) Illinois Valley News, August 23, 1956. employees barely were able to escape before the speed of arrows when the string is released. Archery Plant Destroyed by Fire. the flames engulfed the building. Wooden arrows were not recommended for use 3) Illinois Valley News, October 11, 1956. At the time of the fire, unfilled orders with compound bows due to the higher over- Southern Oregon archery plant to be in produc- would have kept the factory’s ten workers busy all forces that are applied to the arrow, which tion again in November for the remainder of 1956 year and all of 1957. makes it more likely that the arrow will break, 4) Illinois Valley News, December 6, 1956. The demand for arrow shafts was substantial so possibly driving parts of the broken arrow shaft Arrow shafts again fashioned at Kerby plant the Reinoehl’s decided to build a new factory. into an archer’s arm (6). 5) Illinois Valley news, June 2, 1960. It is not surprising that plans for the new The cinderblock factory is still standing Southern Oregon arrowshaft plant sold factory included making it out of fireproof ma- but is on private property and not accessible 6) Wikipedia, 2013. Compound Bow. terials to include concrete blocks and steel. They to the general public. You can see part of the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compound_bow set out to be back in business in six months. building at the end of a driveway about 300 feet 7) Brissee, Tom 2001. History of Archery. By the end of 1956, a new, 4,000 square from Highway 199. It is currently a dark gray Strictly Bow Hunting http://www.strictlybow- foot building made of concrete blocks had been color. hunting.com/Anov01issue/history_of_archery. completed and equipment needed for making htm arrow shafts were being installed. 8) Illinois Valley News, June 6, 1952. Val- In June 1960 the busi- ness was sold to M.L. Bix- ler from Powers, Oregon. He had a similar enterprise of making arrow shafts and had been doing so for 20 years prior to purchas- ing the Southern Oregon Archery Plant and moving to Illinois Valley (5). After 1960 it is un- certain what happened to the business but it is likely that two things contrib- uted to the demise of this enterprise – aluminum ar- row shafts and compound bows. The Easton Alumi- num company began ex- perimenting with alumi- num arrow shafts in the early 1940s and interest in them increased when they were used to win first place in a national archery contest. Archers soon dis- covered that aluminum arrows were more durable than wood as well as less expensive. The XX-75 alu- minum arrow shaft design came out in 1958 and may have had a serious impact on the demand for wood Frances Reinoehl working at an automatic lathe with one of the factory workers. Southern Or- egon Arrow Factory, Cave Junction, Oregon. December 6, 1956, Illinois Valley News.
