Everett Point, Tower: The rabbit hole turns north

Lost golf courses,

Searching for the possibility of a lost golf course in the next county over, I wound up six counties up and 206 miles away.

That’s a heck of a rabbit hole.

I’ll get back to that nearby lost course someday, if there actually is one. But I thought I’d pass along what I found when I started digging — for the first time since  More! Gone. was published a few weeks ago — for lost golf course No. 227 in Minnesota. (I’ll find it sooner or later.)

Flipping through, in a virtual-reality sense, the pages of old Minnesota newspapers, I came upon a short story on the lost Everett Point golf course near Tower. “Lake Vermilion has a new golf course,” read a headline in the Minneapolis Sunday Tribune of July 24, 1927.

“A new nine-hole course, known as the Everett Point golf course, has been officially opened at Lake Vermilion,” the story began. “A short road connecting highway No. 77 with the course was recently completed.”

I have written about the Everett Point course before. It was covered, in a manner of speaking, with four paragraphs near the end of my 2014 lost-course book, Fore! Gone. Minnesota’s Lost Golf Courses, 1897-1999.  The entry noted a 1926 Moorhead Daily News story that said the course would be “five miles from Tower by boat” and that greens fees would be $1.

Coming across the course again this week rekindled my interest. First, I tracked down a 1940 aerial photo of what must certainly have been the golf-course property, appearing in light gray (everything else is trees, road or water):

Here is a wider view of the area, again in 1940. Downtown Tower is about 4.5 miles southeast of the center of Everett Bay. You should be able to click on either photo for a zoomed-in view.

Aerial photos from digital files of John Borchert Map Library, University of Minnesota.

Zooming in on the top photo, I see no signs — whether greens or obvious fairway routings — that the golf course remained in operation in 1940. That makes me twice a liar, because in early references on my lost-course map, I credited the course with a life span of 1921-40. In reality, I suspect it was much shorter.

That covers about half the rabbit hole. Thing is, once I get started, it’s hard to stop myself. I learned more about the Everett Point golf course.

“The course has grass greens, and the yardage is 2,862,” the 1927 Tribune story continued. “The seventh and eighth fairways, especially, are difficult. In time it will be increased to 18 holes. It is owned by Brude Realty Co. of Virginia, but is open to the public.”

Looking at the 1940 aerial, it doesn’t appear that enough land had been cleared to accommodate an 18-hole course. I’m guessing plans were to clear almost the entirety of Everett Point and use it as a golf grounds.

To that end, a story from the Minneapolis Morning Tribune of May 11, 1928:

“Everett Point Links Will Be Expanded,” read the headline. The story reported that five fairways ran parallel to water and that golfers were never out of sight of Lake Vermilion. “The course will be expanded to 18 holes within a year or two,” the story continued.

“James Hunt of Minneapolis, golf course architect and manager of the Country club course in Minneapolis, is a director of the Everett Point club and is supervising the improvements. Earl M. Barrows of Minneapolis will supervise the reconstruction of the greens, the present sod to be replaced by Washington bent grass. Harold Riddle of Minneapolis was professional last year.”

Further burrowing into the rabbit hole required. …

It’s clear there was a concerted effort by parties with Twin Cities connections to make the Everett Point course work. And there were typos in the Tribune story (not throwing shade here. I confess I’ve generated a typo or seven hundred in my newspaper days.).

The aforementioned James Hunt likely was James A. Hunter, original designer of the Country Club (now Edina Country Club), Superior Golf Club (now Brookview) and the lost course at Princeton on the Rum River, to name three. Earle Barrows was a key figure in the development of Bloomington Golf Club (now Minnesota Valley), and he designed Crow River Golf Club in Hutchinson. Hunter and Barrows combined to design one of my favorite lost courses, the Hilltop Public Links course in Columbia Heights.

Everett Point was a par-35 course, according to a 2017 Ely Timberjay story. No. 8 likely was the “signature hole,” decades before that term could be coined and recoined ad nauseam. “No. 8 hole,” the Tribune reported, “a 140 yard shot, is considered by experts to give the average golfer something to think about. This short hole is laid around a cove. A shot across the cove and over the tops of trees on the far side of the cove will land the ball on the green in one. The cautious lad, who has an eye on his ball bag, will shoot around the short dog leg. Par is three.”

Shades of No. 16 at Cypress Point, North Star State style, if you ask me.

Riddle was another Everett Point figure with Twin Cities connections. I didn’t piece together his entire golf résumé, but among the entries of this remarkably itinerant — one might say rabbit-like in the way he hopped around — professional were these: amateur playing out of the Country Club, 1925; Everett Point pro, 1927; Grand Rapids pro, 1928; Hilltop, 1929 and ’30; unattached pro competitor, 1933; Gall’s (now Manitou Ridge) in White Bear Lake, 1934; unattached again, 1935; and then to Watertown Golf Club (now Prairie Winds) in South Dakota in 1937 for what appears to have been a longer stint.

Back to Everett Point: I don’t think the course lasted much past 1930. I found one reference to it in a 1930 newspaper article but nothing after that. It does, however, have a successor of sorts. I reported in “Fore! Gone.” of speculation that some of the Everett Point golf course land lay on what is now the acclaimed Wilderness at Fortune Bay course on the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa Reservation. But that could not have been the case, as the lost course lay entirely north of Everett Bay and the current Fortune Bay course is south of it.

Just one more thing, in case you inexplicably ignored the link near the top of this post and have failed to make the purchase: My second lost-course book is out. It is titled “More! Gone. Minnesota’s Lost Golf Courses, Part II,” and features more than 30 lost courses that weren’t covered in “Fore! Gone.” including rollicking tales from Pine City and Luverne, a tight squeeze near Winona and a historic course near Lake Minnetonka. It’s available here, on Amazon.com.

Now available: “More! Gone.”

Golf history, Lost golf courses,

So many more lost golf courses, so many more stories to tell.

So why not? I decided to tell a few more, with quotes like this, one of many regarding a  colorful gentleman who put up a nine-hole course, designed by a Minnesota Golf Hall of Famer, on his ranch-slash-farm-slash-racecourse in Pine County:

“He drove a 16- cylinder Cadillac … big as a railroad train.”

My second lost-course book, “More! Gone. Minnesota’s Lost Golf Courses, Part II,” is finished and on its way to Amazon’s website via its KDP publishing platform. (If you’re interested in self-publishing, KDP is a great venue for it.)

I’m expecting Amazon to activate a link to “More! Gone.” by the end of the weekend, or maybe earlier. I’ll publish that link here as soon as it’s available.

UPDATE, July 16: The book is now available for ordering on Amazon. Here is the link:

More! Gone. is available here.

An Amazon link to my first lost-course book, “Fore! Gone. Minnesota’s Lost Golf Courses, 1897-1999,” is below, and below that, a list of cities and towns with lost courses covered in the second book.

Order Fore! Gone. here.

Cities with courses in “More! Gone.”:

Ada

Albert Lea

Cass Lake

Cold Spring

Deephaven

Donehower / Dakota

Fergus Falls

Foley

Foreston

Hastings

Hinckley

Lakeville

Luverne

Madelia

Marshall

Milaca

Minneapolis

Oakdale

Pokegama Township, Pine County

Pine City

Princeton

Red Lake Falls

Richmond

Rochester

Rush City

St. Augusta

St. Cloud

St. Joseph

St. Paul

Sauk Rapids

Shorewood

Twin Valley

Winona

And one outlier.

 

Lake City Golf Club: On grounds south and north

Lost golf courses,

In “Fore! Gone,” I included a brief entry on a presumed lost golf course in Lake City. A fellow who preferred to be left unnamed (strange phrase, as I think about it. If you already have a name, how can you go unnamed?) told me of a course that opened in 1927 on the south side of Lake City, on or near the National Guard grounds known as Camp Lakeview.

When the Guard came to Lake City to train for six weeks each summer, the fellow told me, “They couldn’t hardly golf there.”

Well, I have visual confirmation of the lost course.

The images are of a postcard I recently purchased. The postcard is dated April 4, 1930, on the back, and the inscription on the front reads, “Birds eye view of Lake City Minn. on Lake Pepin National Guard Camp and golf links on left. Arrow indicates location of tourist camp.”

I have driven past or near this spot a hundred times and had no idea there was a famed landmark (OK, famed only from my twisted point of view) there. A work colleague from the Lake City area confirms that this view would have been looking northwest, about two miles from downtown. I haven’t researched closely or come up with any details about this course, best guess is that it was named Lake City Golf Club, but it appears to me it would have been situated on what I see on Google Maps as Younger Coulee.

The inscription on the back of the card is notable to some lost-course degree. It concludes with this sentence: “New Golf course is one mile N. W. of city.”

That is presumably a reference to what is currently named Lake City Golf, situated just west of U.S. 61 northwest of town.

I have questions about the timeline involved with these two golf courses. I’m not going to definitively sort them out here because I have a hundred other things going on, including the two most vexing projects known to man: preparing tax returns and ridding a household of infernal mice.

Anyway, about the timeline:

— The man I interviewed in 2013 said the “National Guard” golf course was established in 1927.

— Most Internet entries state 1928 as the date of establishment for Lake City Golf Club.

— The postcard, as noted, mentions the establishment of a new course with a projected date of 1930.

— Newspapers generally offer more reliable details. The Winona Daily News frequently referenced Lake City Golf Club in the 1920s. One story said the course lay on the “parade grounds” of the National Guard camp. Another, from June 1924, states the club was in its second season.

— A March 1929 Minneapolis Tribune story says “Lake City’s new golf course will be formally opened around June 1.”

My best guesses are that Lake City Golf Club on the National Guard grounds was established in 1923 and moved to its site on the northwest side of the city in 1929.

I’ll leave it at that but welcome any comments offering details about the course, either site, and years.

Author’s note: New entries on this site have admittedly been sparse in recent months. Best excuse I can offer is that I’m working on a second book about Minnesota’s lost golf courses and plan to have it published sometime this year. Thanks for your interest.

 

Hollydale (Plymouth) to close; Willow Creek (Rochester) likely to close

Lost golf courses,

Feb. 1: Please note, I am leaving this original post from Oct. 26 intact. There is a significant update at the end of the post.

The past two weeks have brought news of one more Minnesota golf course that will close at the end of the 2019 golf season and another that is likely to close.

The former is Hollydale Golf Course of Plymouth; the latter is Willow Creek of Rochester. Both are public layouts.

Below are links to a Hollydale notice and a Willow Creek news story:

Hollydale notice.

Willow Creek closing.

The Willow Creek story leaves open the sliver of a possibility that another buyer will come along and keep the course open. If that does not happen, it will bring to 73 the number of Minnesota golf courses that have closed since the year 2000.

Here is the current list:

Minnesota’s lost golf courses, since 2000: The list of 85

Photo by Peter Wong.

Unrelated: In the coming months, I will be republishing a slightly revised, slightly updated edition of “Fore! Gone.” It will be in print-on-demand form. The book has proved to be especially popular as a gift for older golfers. Will let you know about it soon.

Update, Feb. 1: Willow Creek will remain open. New buyers have secured a three-year lease. Here is a link to the Rochester Post Bulletin story:

https://www.postbulletin.com/news/local/willow-creek-to-re-open-as-golf-course-this-spring/article_7b980ab4-443e-11ea-bdcf-e332ff9910d6.html

 

Golf in Cass Lake, Part II: Moving time

Lost golf courses,

The original Cass Lake Golf Club served golfers for about than a decade and a half in the 1920s and 1930s, not a bad run during an era in which scores of other small-town courses in Minnesota closed up shop.

At some point, however, the original CLGC situated partly on the Bingham Lodge land between downtown and the shore of Cass Lake ceased to exist, and the game was re-established a mile and a half to the southwest, on the other side of the city, on the site of what is now Sandtrap Golf Course.

But when?

At least two websites say Sandtrap (not its name in the course’s early years) was established in 1944. At least seven others say 1943. One, admittedly more business-oriented than golf-oriented, says 1983.

Not quite, not quite, and what weed from yonder gorse patch are you smoking?

Here is an aerial photo, dated 1939 and taken from the Minnesota DNR’s Landview service:

Yep, it’s a golf course. Modern-day Cass Lake golfers might recognize the lay of the land. It is Sandtrap Golf Course — or at least the 80-year-old version of it — a mile east of downtown. Except the photo dates to 1939, before the consensus purported opening of the course.

Here is what I came up with regarding the very earliest years of what is now Sandtrap Golf Course:

I don’t know whether the original Cass Lake Golf Club, on the Bingham site, flourished or floundered in the 1930s. I came across a few references indicating the course operated into the late 1930s, including a 1937 newspaper ad that said The Bingham still had a golf course adjoining it.

A headline in the Cass Lake Times of July 6, 1939, however, suggested that organized golf in Cass Lake went through a short period of dormancy in the late 1930s. And it pointed toward the future of golf in town.

“Golf Is Revived On New Course,” read the headline.

“The new Cass Lake Golf Course,” the story began, “is now ready for play. Fairways have been cleaned and rolled and sand greens and driving tees are in excellent shape. The new links are located on an eighty-seven acre tract south of the GN wye (railroad intersection, seen at the top of the aerial photo) and overlooking beautiful Partridge Lake.

“Thirty townspeople hold membership in the reorganized golf club.

“The Cass Lake links were first located north of the grade school and across the Soo tracks. Unable to make suitable arrangements with the Dougherty interests for the greater part of the old course that they had been renting, the Club traded ten acres with the bank for the tract near the wye. The bank then sold the ten acres to the School District who will develop a field for various athletic activities. Thirty-six years ago this same field was one of the finest baseball diamonds in the lake region and had a grandstand that held a thousand. It was torn down in about 1913. Adjoining the school yard it make(s an) excellent school athletic field.”

That golf was played at the Sandtrap site earlier than the most-often-cited date of 1943 might be mere historical nitpicking, and Cass Lake is not by any stretch the only Minnesota golf course whose origins go back further than generally credited. The same occurred, for instance, in Marshall and Little Falls and certainly dozens of other Minnesota cities. I’m certain my research and writing isn’t foolproof, either, and that among the hundred-plus lost golf courses I’ve written about, I have gotten dates and history wrong. It’s an imperfect pursuit. Regardless, it seems reasonable to note discrepancies when they lead to a fuller, more accurate history.

The new Cass Lake Golf Club appears to have not roared into the 1940s. A 1940 Cass Lake Times ad mentioned greens fees were 50 cents and that Nick Schluter was club president. A 1941 story notes the same club president, but I found no direct mention of the golf course in operation from that year’s Times editions.

In 1942, golfers from nearby Walker were invited to play at Cass Lake, and vice versa. In May 1943, a headline read, “Cass Lake Golfers Playing Every Day Now,” and “Russell Johnson is putting the links in shape.”

By 1944, hard times were evident. “Town Needs A Golf Course,” blared a front-page Times headline on April 13. A drive for at least 60 members was being conducted by the club’s officers. President N.A. Schluter was quoted as saying, “It is imperative that the town and resort country adjacent, get behind the membership drive, to assure not only a golf course, but one of the best in the country.”

Newspaper stories from later in 1944 confirm that the course did operate that season, but I found no stories mentioning Cass Lake Golf Club in the 1945 editions of the Times.

In 1946, stockholders met early in the season, with Schluter still president. A membership fee of $10 was set, but the status of the course was uncertain. In May 1946, the clubhouse was seriously vandalized. The only other mention of golf in Cass Lake from 1946 was a reference to golfers from town playing in the Birchmont tournament in nearby Bemidji.

In March 1947 came a headline that read “What of Golf?” implying that the club was either dormant or barely alive. Rescue came later that month, with the May 22 Times reporting that the local VFW chapter had taken over management of the course, now called Cass Lake Golf Links. Rollie Schmidt and Cedric Schluter were apparently heading efforts to keep the club operating, and a mixed tournament was set for that June.

I didn’t investigate beyond that date, A) assuming that the golf course survived from that point onward, the start of a five-decade period of stability for Minnesota golf, and B) having set the Hubbs Microfilm Room at the Minnesota History Center record for spooling up rolls of film on a northern Minnesota city. (Yes, that’s sarcasm.) I do know that the course, on the 1939 site, operates today as Sandtrap Golf Course, owned and managed by Gary Larson, who in a brief conversation with me said the course was doing well, thank you.

The Schluters and other Cass Lake Golf Club predecessors would no doubt thank him for keeping the game alive there.

Below: Just FYI, an aerial photo of the golf course from 1976, courtesy of the University of Minnesota’s John Borchert Map Library. Without digging into the more recent history of the course, I can say with 98 percent certainty that it featured sand greens (the bright, white spots) at this  time.

Please comment if you have more to add about golf in Cass Lake. Cheers.