Second Annual High Desert Atlatl Throw & ISAC
Building upon the success of last year’s first annual High Desert Atlatl Throw & ISAC, Jordan Valley, Oregon resident Glenn Fretwell has announced the Second Annual Atlatl Throw to be held over Labor Day Weekend. (See below.) The competition will take place Friday, August 30 through Monday September 2, 2019 at the Oxbow Trailer Park in Jordan Valley. If you are looking for something to do over that weekend, consider taking this in as part of a trip to visit the Owyhee Canyonlands. Children are welcome. Tent camping and RV space are available.
When I posted Glenn’s announcement last year, a friend asked if the atlatl were something associated particularly with the Owyhee. I replied that I didn't think so. Since then I have learned that in fact atlatls were used prior to the bow and arrow by the early residents of the region. Many of what we as kids thought were spear or arrowhead projectiles were in fact atlatl dart points. Remains have been found in the Dirty Shame Rockshelter in the Owyhee Uplands of extreme southeastern Oregon. (Aikens. Archeology of Oregon, 20.)