Amateur Trapshooting Association moves on

Grand American adjusts just fine to new location. ATA officials and shooters say they're happy with the $50 million complex in Sparta, Ill.

By Jim Morris
Staff Writer

Photo slide show...

SPARTA, Ill. — If you showed up at the former Amateur Trapshooting Association grounds in Vandalia last week and wondered where all the shooters were, you could have found them 380 miles to the southwest.

For the first time since 1924, the Grand American World Trapshooting Championships were held somewhere other than Vandalia, and from all appearances, the shooters fit in well at their new location.

"We will grow into it," said John Norris, executive director of the ATA. "There have been a few minor things, but overall I am very pleased."

The new $50 million World Shooting and Recreational Complex here in southwest Illinois is everything the shooters could have hoped for.

"I like it," exclaimed sub-junior shooter Walter Reaster of West Milton. "It's huge, but it's not all that difficult to get around. You can park your car right behind the trap where you are shooting."

Getting there

Starting in Vandalia, the drive to Sparta is not difficult. Figure six to seven hours, including a few rest stops and a half-hour for a quick meal.

There are several ways to approach Sparta, a small town with about 5,000 residents about 20 miles from the Mississippi River. Perhaps the most direct route is to take Interstate 70 almost to East St. Louis, and then head directly south for 50 miles on Illinois 4, a mostly straight, two-lane road through corn and bean fields and some small towns.

Once you get close, it's easy to find the shooting complex. The state has posted signs that take you directly there. Local folks also have put up large signs welcoming shooters and pointing them in the right direction.

What you see

The first inkling that something new and very large has been created out of former strip-mine land in southwest Illinois is the glistening white water tower with the shooters' logo. Then you see four new buildings, the first one being the 34,000-square-foot events center, the hub of everything going on at the shoot.

The small army of state highway patrol officers directs drivers on a rather circuitous route to enter the 1,600-acre WSRC. And as you drive to the main parking lot, you see some of the other facets the facility will soon be opening — rifle and pistol ranges, a cowboy action shooting corral, and archery ranges — and signs to the campground that has about 1,000 spaces.

The events center serves as the central entry building with all of the shooter services, windows to sign up for events and cashiering. But unlike the old Central Entry Building in Vandalia, there also is a snack bar, a full-service restaurant and all of the offices and meeting rooms for the ATA.

Merchants are found in two locations. The larger firms, such as Baretta and Perazzi, can be found in four new buildings to the west of the events center. The small, more numerous vendors are set up in a row of tents and trailers about a quarter-mile east of the center on the other side of one of five lakes on the grounds.

Surrounding area

"People thought we were 'in the middle of nowhere,' but that isn't true," said Toni Pautler, president of the Sparta Chamber of Commerce. "When some of the campers came in, they were carrying two weeks' worth of groceries because they thought there was nothing around here.

"There's no big city right here (like Dayton), but we have several small towns with restaurants and places to stay. And there will be two new hotels going up this year. I think the shooters are finding everything they need."

Those shooters who don't camp seemed to find places to stay, even though they might have had to drive several miles to the grounds each day.

"We're staying in Chester, and it's a 24-mile drive, but it's not bad," said New Knoxville's Dave Berlet, who was shooting in his 50th Grand American last week.

Chester is a town of about 8,000 on the Mississippi River. It has a statue of Popeye in a park overlooking the river, honoring Chester native Elzie Segar, creator of the sailor-man comic.

"We are all excited to see the shooters come," Pautler said. "There really has been nothing going on around here since the coal mines closed."

The shooting

With a 3-mile-long line of 120 traps, all facing north, the ATA has found what it was looking for when talk of expansion first came up in the late 1990s. The only difference is it doesn't own anything, other than the trap machines, trams, benches and scoring chairs. The ATA has a 10-year lease. In addition to the Grand, it also puts on smaller shoots in July and October.

The background, with its wide sky and a few trees, is mostly to the shooters' liking.

"The shooters seem to like it," said Chuck Fritzges, tournament director since 2000. "The line is pretty much the same from one end to the other, so it doesn't really matter where you shoot."

And, he added, referring to Vandalia, there aren't any airplanes roaring in overhead.

As with any new facility, the grounds could use more trees and green grass (the summer has been unusually dry), both on the trap line and campground. And more restrooms are needed.

"They (Illinois Department of Natural Resources, which operates the WSRC as a state park) have been very accommodating," Norris said. "When we've seen something that needed to be done, they have taken care of it."

Ray Greb of Maryland, incoming ATA president, said he was happy with the turnout.

"The naysayers came, and they've enjoyed it here. The attendance has been good, better than last year," Greb said.

For the entire tournament, which closed Friday, 33,858 entered Grand events, up 11 percent from 30,455 in Vandalia last year.

In addition to those trams, traps and benches, there is one last reminder to the days at Vandalia — the Italian sausage man, Tony Johnson, drove his sausage trailer down from Vandalia.

"It wouldn't be the Grand American without that smell of Italian sausage along the trapline," one shooter said.