This Texan Came To Alaska And Now
Really Has Something To Brag About!
By Karl Armstrong
“I got my Brown Bear! said
the beaming young fellow with a
decided Texas drawl, as he loped
into the Mirror office this week.
And although it was an 8-foot
Brownie and not exactly one of the
largest insofar as'our giant Brown
Bears are concerned, we were not
only impressed ... we were a
mazed!
For 32-year old Bill Van Houten,
a printer on the staff of the Fair
banks News-Miner daily paper, had
been to visit our shop several days
previously and told us he had come
Christmas In May- — Children from the Kodiak Baptist Mission
gather for a group picture after touring the USS Currituck and re
ceiving presents from the ship’s crew last week at the naval station.
The Currituck, the U S. Navy’s largest, most modern seaplane tender,
was berthed at the Koliak Naval Station for 10 days, during which
time it held open house and guided tours of the ship. The ship is cur
rently on advance-base operations in Alaskan waters.
(Official U. S. Navy Photo)
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to Kodiak to get a bear . . . with his
bow and arrow!
Somewhat shook at hearing this
startling bit of news we all surrep
titiously glanced at one another ex
changing quick doubtful, eyebrow
raised looks and at the same time
tried to maintain polite, if noncom
mital attenton to this would-be
modern day Robin Hood.
“I’m from Texas,” he said. It
followed of course and made the
matter a bit more understandable
too. Who else but a Texan would
think of attempting such a fool
hardy, if not downright foolish,
thing anyway?
“I’m gonna get me one of those
big bears with a bow and arrow,”
he blandly informed us. Yup, this
guy really was a Texan alright. He
had that streak of exuberant con
fidence so easily, and sometimes
infuriatingly (at least for some
people) associated with Texans.
Besides, there could be no doubt
of the fact that he came from
Texas—his voice had that Western
twang slightly diluted with the
Southern drawl that only the sec
ond - largest state in the Union pro
duces.
Now according to legend and TV,
Texans are always supposed to be
“tall, and lanky” (I s’pose this is
so’s they can “ride tall in the sad
dle.”) But this one was about aver
age Alaskan height (say about 5’
10”—my height) and slender . . .
sorta “rangy” I guess you could
say. He wore a confident friendly
grin on his face and had a real
honest-to-goodness ““neighborly”
manner about him.
Foolhardy, foolish or not, Bill
Van Houten of Houston, Texas,
went out and killed an Alaska
Brown Bear with his bow and ar
row!
“I downed him with one arrow
from about 45 yards distance. He
ran about 75 yards and dropped
dead. He died within one minute
after the arrow hit him,” Van Hou
ten said.
“The arrow went completely
through his rib cage ... a lung
shot ... on the run.
“I used a Red Wing Hunter Bow
with a 55-pound test and 28 inch
Wing Arrows. I guess I was sort
of nervous,” he admitted, “cause
I got him with my second shot. I
missed him completely at about 20
yards with my first arrow.”
“We flew over the Alaska Pen
insula in Ray’s Cessna 180 and es
tablished a tent camp there to hunt
from,” Van Houten said explain
ing to us that Ray Loesche, a big
"amp guide and outfitter of Fair
banks arranged and accompanied
him on the hunt.
Van Houten’s bear, which mea
sures over 8-foot, will be listed in
the Pope & Young Archery Club
Record—which is the equivalent
to rifle hunters Boone & Crockett
Club among archery hunters. Both
use the same measuring and scor
ing systems.
The young Texan explained that
l&odiak-Aleutian
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he was not the first person to shoot
an Alaska Brown Bear with a bow
and arrow there being two others
(Continued On Page 10)
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