‘One of a kind’ shooting park in Crossville drawing people to the area

CROSSVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — Crossville Shooting Sports Park opened their doors in 2019.

The facility holds five skeet/trap combo fields, one single trap field, a European-style bunker, two five-stand courses, two sporting clay courses, a five-bay pistol range, a 200-yd rifle range and a 12-lane 3-D archery course.

“This, as far as being able to facilitate the discipline, I don’t think there’s another one like it in the country,” said Crossville Shooting Sports Park Manager Barry Kelly. “If you can do it with a gun, you can do it here.”

Both locals and tourists frequent the park with the latter helping to boost the economy of the entire Crossville community.

“Last year we held the Tennessee State Sporting Clays Championship and there were 238 participants on the grounds plus all the people who come in to help support,” said Kelly, “Total we probably had 400 people here on the park. So those people have to stay somewhere, that aren’t our local people, so they have to stay in our hotels, they have to stay and eat at our restaurants, they have to shop in our retail outlets.”

Among those utilizing the park range are some of the best in the world.

“It’s just helped me to become more consistent and help me beak more difficult targets by being able to back up and have a wide variety of targets other than just the same targets over and over again,” said sporting clays shooter Christopher Keller.

The park also aims to make sure first-time visitors get what they need to feel as comfortable as they can.

“When they tell us they are a first-time shooter, they’ve never shot a shotgun, they’ve never shot a pistol, they’ve never shot a rifle, they’ve never shot a bow, one of us goes out with them and walks us through the safety rules of that discipline,” Kelly said, “We show them all the proper ways to do it to make them feel as comfortable as they can.”

Near, far, experienced or first-timer, the effect of the park’s visitors on the Cumberland County natives hits the bullseye.

“The local community loves the facility, they think it is a very very big part of the growth for Crossville as far as the Cumberland County area, they think it helps promote this area, they think it helps bring attention to the plateau,” said Kelly.

Sitting on approximately 125 acres of land, the park is one of a kind in both its physical layout and what it’s done to magnify the surrounding community.

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