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Category A - Bowhunters
showing Excellence in the Field of Bowhunting
January 9, 1920 - January 31, 1994
Hall of Fame Inductee 1996
This writing recognizes Art LaHa for his
bowhunting skills and for his early-day promotion, writings, and
teachings that helped make the way for early-day recognition of our
sport that gave us some of the nation's very first bowhunting seasons.
Everyone who knew Art LaHa was aware of his
rare and special qualities as a bowhunter. It all started at the age of
12 when a lumberjack friend of his gave him a homemade bow. That
experience led him on to becoming a bowhunter champion of the sport.
Through his efforts, Wisconsin became the mother state of bowhunting
with an annual licensed bowhunting season. Art developed his skill with
a bow and took all kinds of North American big game animals - deer,
bear, elk, caribou, moose, polar bear, and walrus. Art also guided many
hunting parties in Alaska over a 46-year period.
Art's promotion of bowhunting on a
national level began in the 1940s when he was instrumental in developing
bowhunting, not only in Wisconsin, but on a national scale. Many of his
writings were published in national outdoor magazines. Art was always
available to teach and demonstrate his bowhunting skills to
organizations throughout the world. One of his most-read writings was a
pocket folder titled, Trailing
Tips. Art had this printed himself and
it soon became a bowhunter's bible and could be easily carried by
bowhunters and was commonly found in most bowhunters' back pockets or
bow quivers.
Art's early-day involvement with the
promotion of bowhunting started with a chance meeting with Roy Case
while they were both bowhunting in Wisconsin. This, and other meetings
with fellow bowhunters like Fred Bear and Larry Whiffen, was the
inspiration he needed to better work for bowhunting which soon brought
about better deer and bear bow seasons in the northeast that most
definitely laid the groundwork for other states to follow that
eventually brought national prominence nationwide for the sport of
bowhunting.
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