by Don Turner, Chief Rangemaster, Ben Avery Shooting Facility
May 11, 1998

	The Ben Avery Shooting Facility, a 40 year Tribute 

	Ben Avery's spirit as an active outdoors writer and 
environmental champion flows over the Sonoran Desert and lingers 
on a 1650 acre parcel of land dedicated to his ideals.  Ben had a 
vision of a place where men, women and their children could enjoy 
a sport called "shooting."  This place would be safe and clean and 
provide opportunities for Arizona citizens and their guests to 
practice their marksmanship skills for hunting and competition, 
and learn safe firearms handling.  A place that would help take 
the shooters out of the desert, a place that would encourage 
youngsters to learn the traditions of their heritage and be open 
to all citizens at a reasonable fee. Ben's vision included a place 
where shooters from all over the world could come and enjoy 
Arizona's weather, hospitality, and compete for local and world 
titles.
	In addition to his ideas for a range, and as a hunter and 
fisherman and a lover of the Arizona outdoors, Ben was an early 
champion of an independent Game and Fish Commission, through his 
efforts (and many others) the public voted to establish the 
current Game and Fish Commission and Department.  This association 
with the Commission is what led Ben to select the Arizona Game and 
Fish Commission as cooperative owners of the Black Canyon Range.
	Working with his friends and fellow visionaries, Ben 
succeeded in developing the Black Canyon Shooting Range. Perhaps 
the best way to tell this story is in Ben's own words.  The 
following is extracted from a letter Ben wrote to the "Members of 
the Maricopa County Parks and Recreation Board" sometime in  1983.

	  I make a plea against raising the range fee at Black Canyon 
Shooting Range from $2 to $3, and urge Maricopa County to 
adopt a realistic policy on subsidizing the range.
  	  In support of this plea I would like to give you some 
historical background and make a few points.
	  First, a shooting range is not a park in the ordinary 
sense, but I believe we have pioneered very successfully at 
Black Canyon to prove that a good shooting range can be 
operated as a park recreation area with widespread benefits 
to the community.
	  First some history. The idea for this range germinated in 
the minds of myself, Glenn C. Taylor, then secretary of the 
Phoenix Rod and Gun Club, and Jim Beaman, then president of 
the Phoenix Sportmen's Association about 1950. Beaman felt we 
should have a sort of sportsmen's country club, Taylor and I 
were very concerned about a place to hold competitive rifle 
and pistol matches and to provide a safe place for the 
general public to shoot.  At that time America and Arizona 
was being flooded by cheap foreign and U.S. World War II 
surplus rifles and pistols and ammunition. The desert was 
becoming a battleground of whizzing bullets every weekend, 
and some of this wasn't far from the city.  The area west of 
Seventh Street across from Tapatico Cliffs Resort resembled a 
Korean battlefield.  Sheriff Cal Boies said his office was 
swamped with calls from irate citizens. There was talk of all 
kinds of restrictive laws.
	  Because of my knowledge of land matters, the laws, and the 
kind of area needed, by more or less mutual consent I became 
the coordinator of this effort to find and develop a range.
	  Howard Pyle was governor and Roger Ernst was State Land 
Commissioner in 1953. Roger agreed to go with me and take his 
land status maps.  We spent more than a week looking at 
sites, hoping to find public land that would be easy to 
acquire and easy to develop as close to possible to Phoenix.
	  We finally settled on two sites. No. 1 was 1,300 acres of 
state land just north of Happy Valley Road and west of the 
Black Canyon Highway.  The No. 2 choice was the present site 
of Black Canyon, five miles further out.
	  Roger agreed to support efforts to obtain the land which 
would require:
	1. Getting a state agency to apply for a lease on the land.
	2. Exercising a law authorizing an agency of the state to 
take an existing lease away from someone else for a public 
purpose. 
	  We had to look to the Arizona Game and Fish Department for 
a state agency and that required getting the legislature to 
amend the game and fish law to authorize it to acquire land 
for shooting ranges and to lease or sublease such lands or 
even operate such ranges.  In due time I prepared a bill and 
got it introduced in the legislature.  The lessees of the 
Happy Valley land immediately launched a lobby against that 
bill, even setting up a table just outside the door of the 
House of Representatives which was actively manned by these 
prominent lessees who were holding the land for future 
development.  I was able to win House approval, however, with 
only 8 dissenting votes, and the Senate passed the measure 
without trouble. 
	  The fight didn't end there, however. The governor's 
approval was needed for the institutional taking, and the 
lessees won over Governor McFarland who had succeeded Pyle 
and we could not get him to act.  Our plans sat on dead 
center until Paul Fannin succeeded McFarland.  Paul 
recognized the need and promised his support.  In the 
meantime, through his efforts, I met with the lessees of the 
Happy Valley land and I had talked to Rancher Bob Lockett who 
held leases on the present Black Canyon site.  Lockett 
offered to give us his leases if we chose that site, and the 
Happy Valley lessees, which included TKG Construction Co., 
offered to help us with a $5,000 donation of construction 
work if we would pick our No. 2 site.  We did not need the 
opposition of our neighbors, so we agreed to go five miles 
further out. 
	  Fannin, Adjutant General Clyde Wilson and the new land 
commissioner, Obed Lassen met with me at the present site 
early in 1959 and all gave strong approval.  Bob Lockett and 
O.N. Arrington of the Game and Fish Department met a few days 
later and agreed on terms of Lockett's release of his lease 
on the land.  Meantime I obtained an agreement from the 
Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and Kenneth J. Smithee, 
County Parks Director, to operate the range as a county park, 
and the Park Department's landscape architect and I located 
the section corners, and surveyed the range, laying out the 
various facilities we would need.
	  It was too late for Maricopa County to include the range 
operation in its budget for 1959, so I obtained a $5,000 loan 
from Valley National Bank and made an appeal through my 
newspaper column for donations so range construction could 
begin, using the Marine Corps Reserve Engineering Unit and 
its earth-moving equipment.  I received more than $3.000 in 
donations within a few weeks, and set up the Arizona State 
Rifle and Pistol Association Range Fund, which we are still 
using to support the range.  At that time Glenn Taylor was 
president of the association and I was secretary-treasurer.
	  Retired Marine M/Sgt. Frank Cannon, who had operated the 
Camp Matthews Marine Range in San Diego during the war, 
volunteered to begin supervising the range immediately, and 
sportsmen began using the area to sight in their rifles 
almost immediately.  We started moving dirt and building the 
first canopy in November, 1959.
	  Maricopa County took over operation of the range July 1, 
1960, and reimbursed us for the canopy so we could pay off 
the Valley Bank loan.
	  I continued to coordinate range construction with volunteer 
labor, donated materials such as concrete block, sand and 
gravel, telephone poles, concrete, even the steel water tank. 
 The Game and Fish Department drilled both wells, provided 
pipe for the water system, which was installed by volunteer 
workers.
	  It is my belief that no perk in this state has ever 
received as much in the way of volunteer labor and donated 
construction and materials as Black Canyon, and that 
continues even today, because a shooting range is different 
from an ordinary park.
	  From the beginning those of us who build Black Canyon 
wanted to make sure it was operated in a safe manner to 
fulfill its mission of providing a safe place for the general 
public to shoot.  
	  ...in 1967, the NRA (National Rifle Association) sought our 
help as a place to hold the 1970 World Shooting 
Championships.
	  ...After two years of hard work by many residents of this 
county, particularly Tom Wardell and the employees of the 
Parks Department, the world shooting championships were held 
in October 1970, bringing shooters from 52 nations to 
Phoenix.  Eighteen world records were equalled or broken 
during those matches.  The NRA spent $600,000 putting them 
on, and the Chamber of Commerce estimated they brought $6.5 
million into the business community...
	  When we started developing the International shooting 
facilities at Black Canyon, it became necessary to purchase 
the land, and funds were appropriated from the Game and Fish 
Fund to make that purchase over a five-year period for 
$330.000.
	  Black Canyon Range firearms safety training facilities have 
been build by Arizona Game and Fish Department and some 5,000 
youngsters and adults are trained each year as part of a 
statewide program that has virtually eliminated firearms 
hunting fatalities in this state... 
	  I ask your forgiveness for this lengthy statement, I have 
compiled it in the hope that each of you would benefit by 
having a sort of a history of Black Canyon Shooting Range to 
give you a better understanding of its mission and the reason 
for its existence...
	  Sincerely,
	  Ben Avery

	Since its inception, Ben's vision has continued to grow and 
thrive.  Over 40 years many things have been added and changed to 
the range.  The Black Canyon Range was managed by a "committee of 
three" which included the Director of the Maricopa County Parks 
and Recreation Department, the President of the Arizona State 
Rifle and Pistol Association, the Director of the Arizona Game and 
Fish Department.  Under this arrangement, the County Parks 
Department managed, operated and maintained the Range.  The 
Arizona State Rifle and Pistol Association provided daily on the 
ground assistance, and the Arizona Game and Fish Department owned 
the property and provided financial and heavy equipment resources 
as necessary.  Under Maricopa County's management, the ranges 
continued to serve the public at a high level of service.
	In 1992, in honor of Ben Avery, the Black Canyon Range was 
renamed the Ben Avery Range.  In 1995, during negotiations for the 
renewal of the 25 year lease to operate the range, Maricopa County 
decided that it would no longer manage of the Range.  In August of 
1995, the Arizona Game and Fish Department began operating the 
range in hopes of obtaining a new manager of the property.  During 
this transition period, the Game and Fish Commission began to 
receive intense public pressure requesting that the Game and Fish 
Department continue as the direct operators and managers of the 
property, a petition over 3,000 signatures was submitted to the 
Commission in favor of this desire. In order to demonstrate the 
complexity and variety of the Range, the Department renamed it the 
Ben Avery Shooting Facility.  
	Beginning fiscal year July 1996, the Department began a new 
project.  Named "Statewide Shooting Ranges Project,"  the 
Department established a project which consisted of five separate 
tasks. Statewide shooting ranges administration, Ben Avery 
administration, Ben Avery operations, Ben Avery maintenance, and 
Ben Avery redevelopment. This project now expands across the state 
to provide services to other shooting ranges which includes the 
administration of a newly created $50,000 shooting ranges grant 
program.  The new budgets were designed to set up staffing, 
equipment, operations, maintenance, and redevelopment projects for 
the facility.  Project funding is from Federal-Aid to Wildlife 
Restoration, (these fees are collected from purchases of firearms 
and ammunition and archery equipment), and hunting and fishing 
license sales.  
	The Ben Avery Shooting Facility is housed on 1650 acres of 
sonoran desert located at the northwest corner of I-17 and the 
Carefree Highway (State Route 74, exit 223).  Its hours of 
operation are seasonal with summer hours from 7am to 7pm Wednesday 
through Sunday.  
	The facility which hosted over 72,000 shooter days last year, 
consists of six major areas: the Main Range, the Main Office, 
Shooters Campground, Specialty Ranges, Archery Ranges, and the 
Clay Target Center.
Main Range  This is the primary public range for the facility, and 
includes pistol and rifle shooting with distances of 5, 10, 15, 
25, 50, 100, and 200 yards.  It has been redesigned to modern 
outdoor range standards. which includes a 53 point covered firing 
line with concrete shooting benches.  Shooters pay a $4.00 daily 
range fee and are supervised by Game and Fish Rangemasters, or 
volunteer Line Safety Officers.  This range received 58% of the 
total shooting days last fiscal year.  All persons wishing to 
shoot, use the archery range, or director's of competitive events 
must check in with the Rangemaster at the Main Range.  
	Thursday nights is league night.  The smallbore range is the 
site for the NRA Junior Rifle Program, sponsored by the Arizona 
State Rifle and Pistol Association.  There is also a Ladies League 
on the Main Range, Bullseye Pistol at 2700 range, and combat 
pistol hosted by the Cactus Match League at the practical pistol 
ranges. 
Main Range Office  Located just west of the Main Range, this 
office is the administrative site for the statewide shooting 
ranges project, and for the operation of the Ben Avery Shooting 
Facility.  The facility still hosts a large number of Hunter 
Education field days and has set aside an area just for Hunter 
Education. You may visit or call the office (602-582-5313) to 
obtain information about upcoming events, shooting classes, or to 
reserve a campsite, or just to say hello. The facility staff of 
seven employees is supplemented with extensive volunteer service. 
 Last fiscal year volunteers donated 18,000 hours of labor (this 
equates to 9 full time employees). 
Shooter's Campground  Located due south of the Activity Center, 
Shooter's Campground has 99 campsites. Fifty-five of these have 
water and electrical hookups (20 amp service).  A dump station is 
provided for guests.  Because of the distance from motels, this 
area was developed to support the various events held during the 
1970 World Shoot.  In keeping with this intent, and as a 
reflection of the volume of shooters who visit the range with 
recreational vehicles, this campground is restricted to use by 
shooters only. Due to its popularity, guests are asked to call 
ahead for reservations. Fees are $12 per night for hooks ups and 
$8 per night without.  There are three rest rooms with showers for 
guest use. A fourteen day stay limitation is enforced. 
Specialty Ranges  These ranges were designed and are used for 
competitive events.  As they are not supervised by the 
Rangemasters, these ranges are used by Ben Avery User Groups who 
must provide their own insurance and safety officers.  When the 
Department took over the facility in 1995, there were 65 of these 
groups. This has now grown to 125. Every shooting event that you 
might wish to compete in is shot at the facility. We have ranges 
which include indoor air gun, smallbore rifle, bullseye pistol, 
international pistol, running boar, high power rifle (up to 1,000 
yards), High power and smallbore Rifle Silhouette, Benchrest, 
Practical Pistol, Silhouette Pistol, three training buildings, and 
a central Activity Center. In addition, 16 commercial operators 
provide firearms training courses including the popular concealed 
weapon classes. 
Archery Ranges  We just received the National Field Archery 
Association's "five star" rating for these ranges.  The archery 
range actually consists of a clubhouse with bathrooms, a 
playground, a picnic area, five field courses, a target course, an 
a small FITA range.  This is a beautiful area and is the site for 
many competitive field course events including the popular 3-D 
shoots.
Clay Target Center  Recently remodeled, and operated by a lessee, 
the Clay Target Center is one of the finest in the world.  It 
features 17 trap ranges, 9 skeet ranges, a beautiful and 
challenging sporting clays course, 5 stand, and ZZ Bird ranges. It 
also has a pro shop where one can rent shotguns and purchase 
ammunition and other clay shooting items.
	Contrary to the current social belief concerning shooting 
sports, the Ben Avery Shooting Facility is expanding in user days 
and the Department, in cooperation with the Arizona State Rifle 
and Pistol Association, and the Ben Avery Range Association, has 
embarked upon an aggressive redevelopment project.  From a general 
clean up, to painting, to new ranges the facility is being given a 
face lift.  Future public projects include a community outreach 
program with on site shooting clinics and off site activities; 
development of the Hunter Education Area; promotion of junior 
shooting programs; increased participation of women shooters and 
many, many more activities.
	If you're a shooter and haven't been to the facility, there's 
just no excuse.  Drop by and "give us your best shot."  It's a 
great place and you won't regret it.  If you're not a shooter, 
drop in anyway and see what's going on.  Your visit will put a 
bigger smile on Ben's face. 


Other notes to work into the story as applicable:

Current AGFD Staff assigned to BASF

Don Turner, Chief Rangemaster
Ann Hayward, Office Manager
Larry Collins, Rangemaster
Bill Brandel, Rangemaster
Michele Widhalm, Rangemaster
Harold Olson, Maintenance Specialist
Wayne Santore, Grounds Specialist

Address
Ben Avery Shooting Facility
4044 West Black Canyon Blvd.
Phoenix, Az 85027

Phone Number (602) 582-8313
Fax (602) 582-5317

Hours of Operation
Summer:7am to 7pm Wed. through Sunday
Winter: 7am to dusk, Wed. through Sunday

Winter is (September 2 to April 30)



Address
Ben Avery Clay Target Center
37016 N. Archery Drive
Phoenix, AZ 85027

Operators (L.B.Chief, Inc.)

Phone number (602) 587-1019
Fax (602) 587-1696

Hours of Operation
Wed, Thurs, Fri 1pm-10pm
Sat. Sun, 8am-5pm