Mt. Simon History
Mt. Simon History
Back in about 1987, the Eau Claire Academy gave the City of Eau Claire 9 pieces of strange-looking black metal objects with chains on them. Nobody at the Parks Department knew what they were used for. The academy wanted the Parks Dept. to put these objects up at Mount Simon Park so they could use them for recreation for the kids at the Academy.
After the baskets, or targets as we know them today, sat around for about a year, park management had one of their workers, Tom Field, meet with one of the academy's counselors to set up a frisbee golf course at Mount Simon Park. It was at this time, that the parks department first learned what the strange looking objects were used for. So the counselor and Tom set out to design the course using a few frisbees (not golf discs) to figure out where to put the baskets. After a few hours, the course was designed and, in a day or so, the Parks Department installed the first Disc Golf Course in the Chippewa Valley (1988).
People started to play the sport; first a few, then a few more. Players that knew about disc golf from other cities started to play using the proper discs made for the sport. The start of disc golf in Eau Claire was slow but as the years passed, more people started to play. The safety of the players became a concern due to the closeness of the tees and the baskets. Between 1998 and 1999, the course was redesigned by some of the players from the Chippewa Valley Disc Golf Organization. This made the course much safer.
In 2001, the Eau Claire Jaycees donated nine new Innova DISCatcher baskets. This made the course much nicer to play. In the summer of 2002, the CVDGO donated the concrete to install the new tees. At this time, the course was redesigned again putting two of the holes in the woods and relocating some of the tees to make the course more challenging.
Today, Mt. Simon Disc Golf Course is a very respectable course to play for players of all levels. The course is played by so many players that, on some days, waiting is necessary to begin play. After all the changes made at this course, most of the first design is still used in the course today.
In 1995, 4 men got together to expand Mt. Simon Disc Golf Course to an 18-hole course, but this is another story. See the history of Tower Ridge.