Dates of note in the life of The Bamboo Fly Rod

c. 200: Fishermen in Macedonia fashion the first artificial flies as a means of catching trout
1496: Publication in England of Treatyse of Fysshynge with an Angler
1653: First edition of Izaak Walton and Charles Cotton's The Compleat Angler
1732: Founding of the Schuylkill Fishing Company of Pennsylvania, the first angling club in the American colonies
1770s: Philadelphia tavern keeper Edwards Pole opens the first American fishing tackle shop, selling rods and reels imported from England
1845-65: Pennsylvania gunsmith and violin maker Samuel Phillippe, his son Solon, and craftsmen Charles Murphy and Ebenezer Green from Newark, New Jersey, develop the first American split bamboo fly rods, made with Calcutta bamboo
1871: Hiram Leonard, a celebrated gunsmith and hunter born in Maine in 1831, makes his first split bamboo fly rod and becomes the first American pioneer of the craft
1878: Loman Hawes and Hiram Leonard invent the beveling machine that allows for mass production of split bamboo strips, and the Leonard rod becomes a luxury brand
1882: Leonard moves his rod shop from Maine to Central Valley, New York, bringing apprentices—including Eustis Edwards, Ed Payne, Fred Thomas, and Hiram and Loman Hawes. Each man starts his own family dynasty
1890: Fly-casting becomes increasingly popular, propelled by lighter and lighter rods. Montgomery Ward's catalog offers mass-produced six-strip bamboo fly rods for $1.25. Resisting market pressures, Leonard's disciples split from him to start production of their Kosmic rod
c. 1900: The Montague Rod and Reel Co. of Massachusetts begins using "Tonkin cane" as a trade name for the Chinese bamboo used in rod making. By the 1920s, stronger Chinese bamboo takes the craft of fly rod making – and fly fishing – to a new level
1929: California craftsmen E.C. Powell and Lew Stoner perfect fly rod designs of their own, breaking the northeastern domination of the craft
1950: Bamboo fly rod making is devastated by the U.S. trade embargo against China after Mao Zedong's Communist triumph. It is not revived until the 1970s, when relations with China are restored and exports of Arundinaria amabilis are resumed
1965: Leigh Perkins buys the venerable Orvis Company, Inc. of Manchester, Vermont, and announces his intention of marketing "an Americanized version of English country living." Its signature product will be the fine bamboo fly rod
1975 –the present: Spurred by the restoration of the China trade and a "how-to" book by Hoagy Carmichael, Jr., the craft of fly rod making undergoes a dramatic revival

Source: Casting a Spell, by George Black