Jill Schramm/MDN Cole Anderson hands the axe to Josephine Kaye of Tennessee for another throw at the Up Your Axe booth at the downtown fall festival Saturday.

It’s empowering, refreshing fun, according to Cole Anderson, who is bringing the sport of axe throwing to Minot.

In 2019, on a trip to Ohio, Anderson discovered axe throwing at a business there.

“I basically fell in love with it,” he said. He now is making plans to open an axe-throwing bar at 21 E. Central Ave. Axe-throwing enterprises currently exist in Bismarck, Fargo, Grand Forks and Dickinson in North Dakota.

While he continues to work toward getting the physical establishment for Up Your Axe into operation, he is available for parties, fundraisers and other special events.

Anderson set up a booth at downtown Minot’s Fall Festival last Saturday to give the sport exposure. He shared the throwing technique with newcomers, who caught on quickly. Some axe bounces and misses were inevitable, but many axes hit the target.

The Up Your Axe bar will be open to adults ages 21 and older. Although the potential to make it work is still up in the air, Anderson said he hopes to have family Sundays, when alcohol won’t be sold, to allow younger people to get a taste of the sport.

Anderson said at Up Your Axe, a coach is always present, standing by to help and ensure safety.

Up Your Axe follows the official Axe Throwing League rules, and Anderson eventually wants to start league play.

“We want to build the axe-throwing community and have fun,” he said. “Our business model is to have fun. Our business model is to empower our customers and employees in the sport of axe-throwing. What’s more empowering than to be able to throw an axe at a target, getting, time after time, that accomplishment that wells up in yourself? Whatever else you have going on in your life, you have this. And it’s fun.”