Company Info

View of the outside of our 3Rivers Archery warehouse and yard sign.

Welcome to 3Rivers Archery! Traditional archery is our passion. For 40 years we have been dedicated to the love and growth of traditional archery.

We have gathered the world's largest, and best, selection of traditional archery gear to be anything an archer could need, want, or desire. We have 1,000s of in-stock items ready to ship the same day. We are continuously adding more products, detailed information, helpful videos, reviews from fellow archers, and more.

Our team prides ourselves on being the longbow and recurve experts. We are committed to being your best source of service & information on all things traditional archery. If you have questions please call, email, chat, or stop by the shop. We are here to help you throughout your journey in traditional archery.

As a small, family-owned business we are so thankful for being able to make a living doing something we love so dearly. We love the sport of traditional archery and are here to provide you with the best products and service we can. You can count on us, so don't hesitate to call, or send us an email. From our entire team, we want to thank you, our customer and fellow archer, for making it all possible.

Pursue Your Target™

--Hours of Operation--

Closed for the following holidays
New Years - January 1, 2024
Memorial Day - May 27th
Independence Day - July 4th
Labor Day - September 2nd
Thanksgiving - November 28th
Christmas - December 24th-25th
New Years - January 1, 2025

Please Note: Our warehouse is open to the public every Saturday from 9:00 AM till 2:00 PM, but closed for browsing the rest of the week.

On Monday-Friday, orders may still be picked up at our warehouse or you can even stop in and fill out an order form, and we'll gladly pull your order for you. You'll still be able to try out new bows on our indoor range Saturday. The only difference is Monday-Friday you won't be able to shop the warehouse or try out bows.

We think you'll enjoy our Saturday hours, stop in and see us soon!

Hours of Operation
Sunday: Closed
Monday: 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Tuesday: 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Wednesday: 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Thursday: 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Friday: 9:00AM - 5:00 PM
Saturday: 9:00 AM - 2:00 PM (Warehouse Open)

Order 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year!

Call our order line 260-587-9501 or shop online at 3RiversArchery.com

THE HISTORY

In The Beginning

Today, 3Rivers Archery is the world's largest supplier of traditional and primitive archery supplies. We are the leading source of knowledge, support, and product related to shooting a traditional bow.

Back in 1985 in the city of Fort Wayne, Indiana, our humble beginnings all started with in the back bedroom with founder Steve Ferree starting up a mail order traditional archery equipment business. With the popularity of the compound bow, many traditional archers did not have a place where they could get the products and service they needed. Offering a print catalog that customers could flip though and find just the archery gear they needed for their recurves and longbow. From there the company kept outgrowing its space and kept moving. Going from Steve's garage, to a basement level of a reail complex without heat, to a 1,400 square foot retail store in downtown Fort Wayne.

It only took a few years before we moved again in 1995. This time into a custom built 10,000+ square foot warehouse. Moving North of Fort Wayne about 30 minutes to the small town of Ashley, Indiana (known as the home of the Smiley Face water tower). We are now idealy located next to Interstate 69, and just 30 miles south from the well-traveled Interstate 80/90 tollroad. The perfect spot for both easy shipping (UPS hub 7.5 miles away), and a great vacation pit-stop for our customers. Over the years we have changed and added many things to how we look and operate, we are still happily in the same building.

Fun Fact: Three Rivers Archery Supply, Inc. is our legal name, and the "Three Rivers" comes from the three rivers that flow into Fort Wayne.

New Ownership

In 1999, 3Rivers Archery was purchased by Dale and Sandie Karch. Coming from Wisconsin, the Karch family was no stranger to traditional archery business. Having grown their own family business of DMJ Archery (stood for Dad, Matt, Mom, and Johnny) to be Wisconsin's largest traditional archery shop. Plus, their own custom bow brand of Tomahawk Bows®. Having done business with 3Rivers Archery for several years as a dealer, they knew about the great team already in place. So instead of moving the company to Wisconsin, they moved their family to Northeast Indiana.

Sandie brought her expertise on the business side (having a bachelor’s degree in business and spent 12 years as a business consultant helping others develop and grow their businesses) to be driven, goal setting, and forward thinking. She has advanced every aspect of how 3Rivers Archery operates to make it better and better.

Dale's more than 20 years experience as a Tool and Die Maker certainly taught him an important lesson. There's no such thing as "good enough," you keep working until it's done right. A great attitude that served him well as a bowyer and continued to serve him in his role for proving vision and purpose to all things we pursued, offered, and endorsed. Dale self-taught himself at a young age how to hunt with a bow and arrow. He has served on the Board of Wisconsin Traditional Archers (WTA) for five years, serving as president for two terms. He is a Certified Bow Hunter Safety Instructor, and a member of Professional Bowhunter Society and the Pope & Young Club. He is also currently serving on Compton Board of Directors as Vice President and has served as the Treasurer in past years.

Since the Karch family purchased 3Rivers, every member of the family has worked, or is working, at the shop. Oldest sons, Andy and Matt, have moved on to other careers in different parts of the country, and their youngest son, Johnny, serves as President. Dale and Sandie are now into their retirement years and enjoy the sunshine of Florida. Now stepped back from the day-to-day, the lessons they have taught us of drive and devotion are still in our thoughts and decisions we make today.

As for the future, some of Dale and Sandie's grandkids have started to work during school summer breaks and help with booths at archery shoots. Time will tell if one of them will be a future owner of 3Rivers Archery, but in the meantime we just love having them part of the team.

Meet the Karch Family. Johnny, Jenn, and the girls (Alexa, Maggie, and Bella)

The Tradition Carries On

After 25 years under the leadership and guidance of Dale and Sandie, they have retired to enjoy their Golden years with family and friends. With their transition to a new adventure in life, Johnathan and Jennifer Karch have taken on the leadership role to own and operate 3Rivers Archery together.

Having been present at every step along the way during the Karch family traditional archery business journey, Johnathan is well versed in what it takes to lead and grow 3Rivers Archery. For the past several years he has held the role of President, so the transition to owner will be smooth. Jennifer has been a huge asset to 3Rivers since the day she joined the Karch family. In the early years supporting their girls as a stay-at-home mom who stepped in to fill roles in different departments as needed. Doing everything from order fulfillment, to accounting, to shipping logistics, and about anything and everything else. As the kids have grown, so has Jennifer's responsibilities and hours at the shop. Stepping into her role now as owner and CFO, she manages all aspects that keep the lights on.

As time continues on, even their kids have started helping out at 3Rivers. You can see them frequently in the pages of our print catalogs, to helping at archery shoots, to even pulling orders or counting inventory. The 3rd generation of Karches is part of 3Rivers Archery, and we are excited to see them grow with the company. Who knows what the future may hold for them.

TOMAHAWK BOWS®

Old newspaper article featuring Dale Karch with his 500 pound Wisconsin black bear. Killed with a Tomahawk Bow.

Dale Newspaper Article about building bows

In the late 80's, Dale Karch purchased his first custom bow. Being a Tool and Die Maker by trade, he critiqued the bow's quality and craftsmanship. He knew that with his skills, he could produce a bow of better quality. So, Dale and his good friend Greg, built their first form and heat box. The rest is history.

Using his first Tomahawk Bow, a 53# recurve, Dale shot a Pope & Young black bear in Wisconsin the following year. From there, friends and family started requesting bows and his new hobby took off and quickly grew to be a small business.

Since their home had no basement, Dale built his bows in a utility porch, on top of the washer and dryer. Being frustrated from having to move the bows every time she did laundry, Sandie relented to taking a second mortgage to build Dale a garage/shop.

After much sweat (we started in August) with the help of many, many good friends, Dale's "toy shop" was done. They built a 28' x 48' building next to their house in Princeton, Wisconsin. The bow business took off from there. However, our bow customers also kept asking for additional supplies like strings, armguards, cases, etc. Dale got a dealer’s application from 3Rivers Archery and started to purchase some of these supplies. Since he traveled most weekends to various shoots and shows to display his bows, he kept his supplies in big rubber tubs. If someone asked for something, he'd take it out and sell it to them.
Sandie, being a business consultant said, "hey, you've got a couple of thousand dollars of inventory in those tubs. Why don't you put it out on display for people to see?" Before, you know it, half of the shop became a retail store. Before long, DMJ Archery was Wisconsin's Largest Traditional Archery Store.

Trivia Note: DMJ Archery, LLC was the name of the business. It stood for Dad, Mom, Matt, and Johnny. This has always been a family adventure.

Before long, Dale quit his day-time job as a Tool and Die Maker and started building Tomahawk Bows® full time. Like many bow makers, Dale thought, "if he could just get his bows into the 3Rivers catalog..."Well, after bugging Todd Smith, the Manager at that time, Todd finally said, "look the company is for sale, if you want your bows in the catalog, why don't you buy the company?" The rest is history.

Today we still use Dale's Tomahawk Bows® designs and forms and our staff oversees quality control. Tomahawk Bows® are now built by Norm Johnson, legendary bowyer and founder of Blacktail Bows. He builds each and every Tomahawk Kiska longbow to our specs.

Tomahawk Bows® are known for being stable, smooth shooting bows. They are quality through and through, plus beautiful! If you haven't tried one yet, you don't know what you're missing.

MEET THE TEAM

More than 250 Years Experience Under One Roof

Even though we specialize in mail order archery supplies, we offer "down home" service. Our knowledgeable staff has expertise in everything from self bow building to laminated bow building, snake skin backing, arrow making, and string making. With over 250 years archery experience between our staff, you name it and someone here has probably done it. Many of our customers like to call us and "pick our brains." We give our expertise freely; all it costs you is the phone call (technical advice not available on the toll free #). As we move into the world of technology, you'll be able to find more information, and answers to your questions on our Web site.