The archery range is located in the Lower Arroyo Park in Pasadena. The first "Robin Hood" movie starring Errol Flynn was filmed there back in the 1930s and some of the members of the Pasadena Roving Archers club helped train the archers in the movie "Avatar."
The club has also produced Olympic champions. Lower Arroyo Park has been its home since 1935. It's 18 acres of targets and nature, and now it's the center of a dispute over access to an old trail near targets.
"This is actually the oldest field archery range in the world. The 28 targets designate a field range and, if we start to give that up, we can't recapture it," said Gary Spiers of Pasadena Roving Archers.
There are 22 miles of hiking trails in the park, and what's in dispute is about a quarter mile of it.
John Fauvre lives near the Arroyo and said he's been walking through there for more than 60 years. He said there should be a way to share this trail.
"I think you can have a safety program, if the archers and the walkers cooperate. That would clarify the situation and would clear the archery lanes, so that they could be safe for walkers. And that there be clear rules," said Fauvre.
According to a nearby residents' association, the archery club and a group of walkers and hikers have their sights set on working out a shared use resolution to present to the Pasadena Parks and Recreation Commission at its next meeting in July.
"We've never gone where the archers are. I walk here with different friends," said Monica Krieger of South Pasadena.
Krieger said everybody can get along and it's clear that the range is there.
The archery club boasts that in its 76 years there, no one has ever been hurt by an arrow. Both sides are hoping no matter what happens, that remains the same.
