Peter Torkelson of Adams lets fly with an arrow at the new archery range in Adams. Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com

When Peter Torkelson gets bored, he gets on his bike or walks the three blocks to the archery range in Adams and is suddenly on Cloud Nine. Torkelson lines up his bow and pictures himself like Legolas, the elven archer in the Lord of the Rings, and he takes aim. When Torkelson pictures the target in front of him as a larger elephant from the movie and he lets it fly.

You wouldn’t know it by watching, but Torkelson, who is a junior at Southland High School, hadn’t even touched a bow three months ago and the archery range, which is located in Adams Park, south of the campground, didn’t even exist until this summer.

Mike Gehrke got the ball rolling on the archery range after seeing an ad in Outdoor News Magazine for archery range grants. Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com

Torkelson has picked up archery pretty quick. He visits the range at least three times per week.

“It’s fantastic. I love this place. Every time I come out here I get a little bit better,” Torkelson said. “I can be at home and be like ‘I’m bored,’ but there’s an archery range three blocks away so why I am I bored?”

Mike Gehrke zeros in on one of the targets at the archery range in Adams. Eric Johnson/photodesk@austindailyherald.com

The archery range in Adams became a possibility last year when Mike Gehrke, the chief of police in Adams and an ambulance director, subscribed to Outdoor News Magazine and noticed an ad for grants for archery ranges through the Minnesota DNR.

Gehrke, who has lived in Adams for seven years, suggested the range to the city council and they approved it, but he had the responsibility of writing up the grant and deciding where everything would go. Gehrke spent 30 hours getting Google satellite images of the campground and surrounding area and he had to work out where everything was going.

“I had never written a grant in my life and there was a lot of work that went into it,” Gehrke said.

Once spring arrived, Gehrke was able to get the range built with the help of Paul Kirtz of Diamond Dozing, who bulldozed the parking lot and Mark Anderson, the mayor of Adams, who helped put up the targets.

In all, with the help from the community, it took just 20 hours of work to build the range.

Gehrke said he felt that Adams needed an archery to provide activities for area youths like Torkelson.

“Adams needed something for the older kids, young adults and adults,” Gehrke said. “They have a great football field, a new baseball field and a beautiful park area. I wanted something that the teens and young adults could come out in the afternoon and utilize. This is my home and I thought this is one thing that I can do to help the community.”

The range in Adams, which opened June 1, is the only free non-membership range in Mower County and it has drawn archers from Albert Lea, Rochester and Austin. The range is open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. are there are some basic rules posted.

The range will be open as long as weather allows, but it won’t be plowed in the winter.

During the warmer months, Archers are free to shoot whenever it’s most convenient for them and that is a big draw for kids like Torkelson, who didn’t even know what an arm guard was when he started going to the archery range. Torkelson recalled how bad his arm hurt the first time the bow string snapped against it and he was quick to buy an arm guard after that. Since then, he’s learned a lot more about archery.

“It’s really peaceful and tranquil and I like how it is now,” Torkelson said. “I didn’t know a lot of things about archery, but I picked some stuff up.”

Gehrke said archery is growing in southeast Minnesota as Southland, Grand Meadow and LeRoy-Ostrander recently added archery to their physical education to their curriculum thanks to a DNR grant.

“I built this range to get the younger kids out of the house in the summer time and have them enjoy the outdoors,” Gehrke said.