Tower Ridge History
Tower Ridge History
The story begins in 1995. Four men from Eau Claire, Larry Ader, Jeff Nelson, Dave Bohlinger, and Tom Field were members of two groups with a common interest. Larry and Jeff had an idea to expand Mt. Simon disc golf course to eighteen holes. At the same time, Dave and Tom had the same idea. Both groups of men had talked to the Director of Parks and Recreation about their ideas.
The Director suggested that both groups combine their ideas and work together as one group. That was a great idea in itself, so the four men met and talked about what they wanted to do. This was the beginning of the CVDGO.
They decided that they would work together with a single focus. The group spent many hours walking around Mt. Simon park during the spring and summer of 1995. It was decided to lay out nine more holes going up the hill by the 7th hole. Using the top of the park and throwing downhill by the 8th hole, the layout would make Mt. Simon an 18 hole course, a very nice 18 hole course at that. After consulting with Tim Mackey, a PDGA-approved course designer from St. Cloud, MN, they put a plan together and went back to the Parks Director. The park director liked the plan, so a plan to get sponsors was put together. Letters were sent out to many businesses and non-profit groups.
While money was being raised, excitement started to grow about the new course. Things were looking good, when the people in the Mt. Simon neighborhood found out about the plan. Some of them did not want disc golf to expand at the park. After the men found out about this, they decided to talk with the park director about this. No one wanted to give disc golf a bad name, so it was decided to look for a new location for the course. Riverview park, the Eau Claire well fields, Fairfax park and Carson park were all considered for the new course. The wells fields looked like a great place to have a course and the others were ruled out for one reason or another. It was then discovered that it would take a long time to get approval to use the wells, with the possibility of the proposal being rejected.
It was decided to look for a new location once more. The idea was suggested that the Eau Claire County parks be considered. Lowes Creek was considered first, given its proximity to Eau Claire. The Eau Claire County Parks and Forest Department determined that adding a disc golf course to the park would possibly create overuse, given the trails that were currently in existence. Jeff had cross-country skied at Tower Ridge and suggested that it might be an excellent location for disc golf, considering its topography.
By this time, snow was on the ground so it looked like the course layout could not be finalized till spring. However, Jeff was so enthused about showing Tower Ridge to the other members that he convinced Larry to go skiing with him at Tower Ridge and start looking at a layout for the course. While Larry (a novice XC skier at best) was going down the hill at what was to become hole 7, he fell and dislocated his shoulder. It was then determined that further course layout was going to have to wait until spring.
In the spring of 1996, it only took a few minutes to decide that this would be the best location for the new course. The excitement was almost unbearable after walking around the trails at Tower Ridge. The land lent itself so well to disc golf, that there were almost too many possibilities for hole locations. Luckily for the group, Larry had worked on and knew about disc golf from his hometown of Sheboygan, WI. This was a big plus for the group. The group spent a month or so refining the design, with suggestions provided by Paul Nytsch, Barry Schultz, and John Ader.
The group then put a plan together and met with the Eau Claire County Parks and Forest Committee. The committee listened to the men and their plan. Then a vote was taken and the course at Tower Ridge was approved. By this time the funds were raised, so the four men started installing the tees and baskets, which took a few weeks to complete. The baskets were installed, starting at hole 18 and finishing at hole one. Then the fun began -- on May 8th, 1996, Larry, Jeff, Dave and Tom played the first round of disc golf ever played at Tower Ridge -- what fun it was!