Home to the 2015 World
Archery Youth and U.S. National
Field Archery Championships
Eight years ago, a national archery
organization decided to relocate its
headquarters from sunny California
to Yankton, South Dakota.
In relatively short order,
Yankton has now been
frequently referred to as
the archery version of what
technology is in Silicon Valley.
And Bruce Cull has been
front and center the whole time.
Now the president of the National
Field Archery Association (NFAA), Cull
played a key role in the effort to relocate the
organization’s national headquarters from
Redland, California, to Yankton in 2007.
Since that time, the NFAA Easton Yankton
Archery Complex - as it’s called now - boasts
one of the world’s only 90-meter Olympic
indoor ranges, and as of a year ago, the NFAA
museum which is open to the public.
The highlight of Yankton’s entrance into
the international archery scene was landing
the 2015 World Youth Championships,
beating out such locations as Mexico City. An
estimated 600 competitors from 60 countries
are expected to travel to Yankton for the
prestigious event which will run from June
8-14.
48 – Yankton, South Dakota
None of the big-time tournaments this
town hosts, though, would have been
possible without the improvements
to the NFAA Easton Archery
Complex.
The complex saw a $1.5 million
addition in 2010, a move that
essentially doubled the size of
the facility. The overall complex
also features a FITA outdoor
90-meter range and redesigned
3D ranges.
Perhaps the biggest addition to the
complex, however, is the museum. In
addition to more than 300 historic bows, its
collection includes memorabilia from over
100 national tournaments.
It is not only professional archers who
have shot arrows in Yankton, however. A
number of youth programs have sprouted
out because of the archery expansion - as
well as a number of archery-related movies in
recent years.
You can learn more about the archery
complex at www.yanktonarcherycomplex.
org, or call (605) 260-9282.