Crossbows

and other civic leaders lured the National Crossbow Tournament to Huntsville, according to Marie Demeroukas, a photo archivist and research librarian at Shiloh Museum of Ozark History in Springdale.

For the previous four years, the medieval-themed tournament was held in Blanchard Springs, Demeroukas wrote in the museum’s newsletter, Shiloh Scrapbook.

Stevens started the tournament in Blanchard Springs in 1954, said Demeroukas. He moved to Huntsville along with the tournament.

The Crossbowettes would perform a variety of trick shots, according to Shiloh Scrapbook. On Sunday afternoons, they would perform for customers of the Crossbow Restaurant, on the north side of the building.

Pat Woollen of Huntsville, a former Crossbowette, said she would shoot targets over her shoulder using a mirror smaller than a postage stamp Stevens had attached to her crossbow.

“I am the only one who shot backwards,” said Woollen.

She still has the crossbow Stevens made for her.

Woollen said the Crossbowettes performed in other towns and regularly at the State Fair in Little Rock. As part of the entertainment, Woollen said she would ride a horse and lance wooden rings hanging from a swinging pole.

“You almost needed to be a tomboy because you had to like to ride horses and you had to know a little about mechanics,” said Woollen.

“Our side sheath held a screwdriver. The sights on a crossbow, they’d get bumped and turn a little bit, and we’d have to adjust the sights for 25 yards or 50 yards.”

Yates said Stevens initially made crossbows solely by hand but later established a small assembly line at his Stevens Crossbow Corp. in Huntsville.

In an Oct. 26, 1958, column for the Arkansas Gazette, Ernie Deane wrote Stevens believed “an Arkansas community can become the nation’s crossbow capital, a center for its manufacture and of competition in its use. Huntsville, the seat of mountainous

Madison County, is the place where he is now making his effort.”

Deane, along with hundreds of other people, attended the National Crossbow Tournament that month on Governors Hill, overlooking Huntsville.

He described it as colorful, with the Crossbowettes performing and a squad of Marines from state recruiting headquarters in Little Rock serving as judges of the tournament.

But the crossbow enthusiasm tapered off during the turbulent ’60s.

The last Crossbowette performance was in 1967, and the last crossbow tournament in Huntsville was in 2003, wrote Demeroukas.

Yates said he spent from $200 to $500 for each crossbow in his waiting room. He keeps an alert on eBay, so he’s notified when certain crossbows are posted for sale.

He’s seen Stevens crossbows for sale as far away as Europe.

Shiloh Museum held a reunion of former Huntsville Crossbowettes on Friday. An exhibit at the museum called “Scenes of Madison County” contains some Crossbowette memorabilia. It will be on display through Dec. 14.