Doug Read is known around North Lake Tahoe for being one of the founding members of the Tahoe Nordic Search and Rescue team. Over the years he has headed out, usually in the dark in a blizzard, on more than 150 search missions. He was also the Great Ski Race director for 43 years and founder of the Tour De Manure bike ride in Sierraville.
“We started installing the arrows at friends’ businesses as a joke. It’s really fun putting one up in the dark and then disappearing.” —Doug Read
But Read also had a long career as a carpenter, specializing in log handrails and post and beam construction, as well as wood tables and chairs. A few years ago, he took his woodworking skills in a whimsical direction, when he started carving pumpkins, arrows and signs.
“I got a half interest in a sawmill and created a lot of six-inch-thick slabs of wood. I used some of the slabs for making benches. I’ve sold about 60 of those,” said Read. “These are quite sizable and heavy, and the dimensions have to be perfect.”
One of these benches sits proudly in front of Alpenglow Sports in Tahoe City.
Then Read pondered what else he could do with all those wood slabs. He began creating carved pumpkins, wooden United States flags, bears and depictions of Indians paddling canoes or shooting arrows.
He developed a passion for arrows when he saw a metal arrow stuck in a tree in Tahoe City. It intrigued him that it had been there so long, the tree had grown around it. Later, while visiting relatives in Arizona he came across a 20-foot wooden arrow and the lightbulb went off in his head: It would be fun to make those.
Read’s arrows have a shaft of light, unstained wood, a black shiny arrowhead and bright red feathers at the end of the shaft. They look like a classic design you might have seen in a cartoon as a kid. He put his first 20-foot arrows in front of his Tahoe City home and then added one to a tree outside of Sugar Pine Cakery in Lake Forest.
He realized that the arrows were fun, but perhaps more people would be interested in a much less cumbersome smaller size, so he started making smaller 3-foot versions.
“We started installing them at friends’ businesses as a joke,” said Read. “It’s really fun putting one up in the dark and then disappearing.”
The businessowners loved getting to work in the morning and seeing the surprise.
One of Read’s late-night arrow visits was the flag pole at Tahoe Cross Country Ski Area. Visit the ski area’s webcam online, you will see his proud handiwork on display. Read was a member of the ski area’s board of directors for several decades. Whenever he stops by the Nordic center, the place lights up with his humor and positive attitude.
And then there are the wood pumpkins.
“It’s fun in the fall. I make the giant pumpkins and people come walking by in the neighborhood. I sell them as fast as I can make them in my yard,” said Read. “The next day they come back for another one for a father or friend down the street. I take 10 of them to the Sierra Valley Art and Ag Show every September.”
In 2018 Read began a herculean struggle against myelofibrosis, a blood disease in which the bone marrow is not producing enough red blood cells, which leads to severe anemia, fatigue and an enlarged spleen. After a bone-marrow transplant and lengthy battles with infection, he has been recovering for the last year and a half and now is happy that he has the strength to once again craft his fun wood creations that make people smile.
I have, or should say had, one of Read’s 3-foot arrows. It stood proudly at the edge of my deck until heavy snow during the winter of 2019 brought it tumbling to the ground. Read congratulated me for becoming a member of the Broken Arrow Club. I’m hoping to get my arrow fixed soon, using it an excuse to shoot the bull once again with one of Tahoe’s most fun characters.
Read’s artwork is available at Lombardi Mercantile in Loyalton. | dougreadwoodworking.com
