By Vic Stickels
Who Was Glenn St. Charles?
Glenn St. Charles is widely regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of traditional bowhunting. As a bowhunter, bowyer, conservationist, author, and founder of the Pope and Young Club, St. Charles helped shape modern bowhunting ethics, record-keeping, and fair chase standards across North America.
From the forests of Idaho to the remote Alaska Range, his life tells the story of bowhunting’s transition from a fringe pursuit practiced by a few dedicated men into a respected hunting discipline rooted in skill, restraint, and respect for the land.
Early Life: Learning the Woods the Hard Way
Born on December 15, 1911, in Seattle, Washington, Glenn St. Charles was introduced to wilderness living at a young age. His father worked as a timber cruiser, and by age ten Glenn was already living in remote logging camps in the Kaniksu National Forest of northern Idaho.
While the men surveyed timber, Glenn chopped wood, washed dishes, and kept the sourdough starter alive using potato peelings. Camp life was simple, demanding, and honest. These early experiences taught him how to read sign, understand terrain, listen to weather, and live simply—skills that would later define both his approach to bowhunting and his broader philosophy on life in wild places.
First Bows and Early Archery Experiments
By the mid-1920s, Glenn had begun crafting homemade bows in Seattle using hazelnut limbs, twine, and improvised arrows tipped with sharpened nails. Along Puget Sound, he and his friends stalked sand sharks from seawalls—not for trophies, but for the challenge, the patience required, and the satisfaction of closing distance with simple tools.
In 1926, a Boy Scout manual introduced him to Pacific yew. Glenn harvested a tree, split the stave, and built his first real bow. That moment marked the beginning of a lifelong commitment to traditional archery and self-reliance.
By the time he graduated high school in 1930, Glenn was already building yew bows for other Boy Scouts, guided more by instinct and experience than formal instruction. He was learning by doing—testing, failing, and refining his craft.
Northwest Archery Company and the Growth of Bowhunting
In 1949, Glenn opened the Northwest Archery Company in Normandy Park, Washington. More than a retail shop, it became a gathering place for serious bowhunters—a place where equipment, ideas, techniques, and ethics were openly exchanged.
During the 1950s, Glenn served as Vice President of the National Field Archery Association (NFAA), where he aggressively pushed for legal bowhunting seasons across the United States. At the time, archery hunters were often dismissed as impractical or ineffective. Glenn worked tirelessly to prove they were ethical, capable, and deeply conservation-minded.
The 1955 British Columbia Mountain Goat Hunt
In 1955, Glenn St. Charles and Dick Bolding traveled to Tweedsmuir Provincial Park in British Columbia to pursue Rocky Mountain goats with traditional bows. They flew in by floatplane near the Bella Coola River, then hiked into steep, dangerous terrain far from roads or support.
The hunt involved slick shale slopes, dense timber, fog-covered cliffs, and long crawls across wet tundra. Glenn eventually closed the distance on a goat standing broadside on a narrow ledge and made a clean kill with a hand-carved arrow.
The pack-out required quartering the animal and descending through grizzly country—soaked, exhausted, and carrying heavy loads. The hunt became one of the earliest documented examples of extreme backcountry bowhunting done the hard way.
Alaska and the Little Delta River Bowhunts
Beginning in 1957, Glenn led multiple expeditions into the Alaska Range near the Little Delta River. Alongside hunters like Dick Bolding, Keith Clemmons, and later Fred Bear, Glenn pursued caribou, moose, and Dall sheep using longbows and traditional equipment.
These hunts relied on canvas tents, wool clothing, river crossings, and pure instinct—no GPS, no compound bows, no modern gear. Unknown to them at the time, they were walking the same ground once hunted by Art Young in the early 1920s.
These expeditions laid the foundation for Glenn’s later book Bows on the Little Delta and became legendary within traditional bowhunting history for their honesty, difficulty, and lack of shortcuts.
Establishing Bowhunting Records and Standards
In 1957, Glenn began working with the Boone and Crockett Club to measure bow-killed game. By 1958, he secured permission to apply their scoring system specifically to archery harvests.
That same year, the National Field Archery Association officially launched its bowhunting records program. Glenn became a certified measurer, collecting data from across the country and bringing long-needed credibility and structure to bowhunting at a national level.
The “1958 Gang” and Proof of Concept
In 1958, Glenn joined a group of elite bowhunters—including Fred Bear, Dick Bolding, Bud Fowles, and others—later known as The 1958 Gang. Flying into remote Alaska by bush plane, they hunted caribou, moose, and grizzly with longbows under harsh conditions.
The hunt was about more than success—it proved that bowhunters could operate ethically and effectively in extreme wilderness. The results helped influence the creation of modern bowhunting seasons, fair chase standards, and conservation policies.
Founding the Pope and Young Club
In 1961, Glenn St. Charles founded the Pope and Young Club. The organization established fair chase standards, ethical guidelines, and an official record book exclusively for bow-killed game.
By 1962, Glenn helped publish the first Pope and Young Club record poster. Throughout the early 1960s, he recruited members, trained measurers, and refined the record system that still governs bowhunting achievements today.
Preserving Bowhunting History: The Museum Years
In the 1970s and early 1980s, Glenn shifted focus toward preservation. After decades of collecting artifacts, journals, bows, and photographs from pioneers like Fred Bear, Saxton Pope, and Art Young, he opened the Pope and Young / St. Charles Museum in Seattle in 1983.
The museum became the official archive of the Pope and Young Club and remains one of the most important collections of traditional bowhunting history in North America.
Bows on the Little Delta and Later Writing
In 1997, Glenn published Bows on the Little Delta, a memoir chronicling his Alaska bowhunts of the 1950s. The book is widely regarded as one of the most authentic accounts of traditional bowhunting ever written—raw, honest, and deeply rooted in lived experience.
He also contributed articles to Traditional Bowhunter Magazine, blending historical insight with firsthand knowledge from the field.
Legacy and Honors
Glenn St. Charles was inducted into the Archery Hall of Fame in 1991 for his lifelong contributions to archery and bowhunting conservation.
He passed away on September 19, 2010, at the age of 98. In 2021, he was posthumously inducted into the Pope and Young Hall of Fame as part of its inaugural class.
Why Glenn St. Charles Still Matters
Glenn St. Charles didn’t just hunt with a bow—he defined what bowhunting stands for today. Ethical harvests, fair chase, accurate record-keeping, and deep respect for wildlife all trace back to his work.
Modern traditional bowhunters walk in the footsteps Glenn St. Charles carved—often without realizing just how much of the path he built.
