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.
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Riverdale
George C. Philips, the founder of Riverdale, died 10/18/1967 in Winona at age 90. He was a member of the LaCrosse Country Club and buried in Hamilton Cemetery, West Salem, WI.
Philips and his wife continued to call their home “Riverdale” until they put it up for sale in 1953.
The main business of the golf course appears to have been the Tavern. The Tavern continued to operate for many years. References to Riverdale Tavern continued to appear in the Winona paper until approximately 1957 when four acres was taken for Hwy 61, including the tavern building. Phillips contested the valuation, and reportedly showed many photographs and slides of the property to the jury. (The jury awarded $13,000 less than the government had offered).
I don’t ever remember a golf course. There was a campground at the bottom of Queen’s Bluff and a large wooden structure partway up the hill that we were allowed to sleep in. This would have been approximately 1975. I think the camp area is long gone.
I was in the former Hunthaven space in 1974 and 1975. After Hunthaven it was a Lutheran Camp called Lutherhaven. Finally, for a very short time, it was a school called Riverhaven. I was a student at Riverhaven, which only used the southern half of the building. Two stories plus an improved basement. Nice grounds, but right up against the bluff so they were long and narrow. The northern half was open and we could go in there, but it was stripped to the sheetrock. Not very interesting. I was still sad to see it go.
Thanks so much for the information, Mr. Nelson. I suspect you’re right about the golf course and the tavern being intertwined, in the golf course’s later years of the 1930s. I found at least one newspaper story from Riverdale’s first year or two that firmly stated there would be no alcohol served on site. Perhaps the repeal of Prohibition in 1933 changed things.
I wonder if that tavern served alternately as a golf course clubhouse. In 1930s aerial photos of the area, there is a shape that perhaps is a building north of Hunthaven that I suspect was on the southern edge of the golf course. Maybe it was the tavern/clubhouse.
I’m guessing you read my story on Riverdale from the most recent Minnesota Golfer issue. What appeared in the magazine was an abridged version of my Riverdale chapter from “More! Gone.”, my second lost-course book. But I did not know much of what you have passed along, and I appreciate it.
I loved researching and writing about the place, and visiting it and also visiting Great Bluffs State Park, where the views are breathtaking.
Cheers.