Ortonville
Amount Allocated: $54,987 - total all funds $74,000
WPA Approval: 6/29/40
Date: started: 1936
Date Finished: 1st round October 1941 (although course not done)
Clubhouse dedicated: 7/25/43
Architect: Oscar Oman (professional at Alexandria course 10/2/41), although I heard that Paul
Clubhouse Designer: Ray R. Gauger
Number of holes: 9
Ortonville seems to be the last of the WPA built golf courses. It creaked to a conclusion at the tail end of the WPA, and reading between the lines, they couldn’t get a crew out there to finish the work. When you compare the work done here, it was mechanized, compared to Pierz, one of the first courses.
The strangest thing happened when they built the course, when they were excavating the new clubhouse, they found an Indian Mound. They carefully excavated the Mound, and ...moved it 20 feet away. The Mound had been opened in 1880, it was “burials untouched.” It was the first in the state a Mound was reconstructed after excavation. The paper reported the skeltons were sent to the U of M to be reassembled, then they would be returend and displayed in the clubhouse.
When you walk into the clubhouse, you immediately know, “this was built by the WPA.” Look at its large stone fireplace, large wooden beam and wainscoated walls - all of the classic WPA touches are there. The parts of the course the WPA built are still there too, even after a retouch: small elevated greens, elevated (dual) tee boxes, and narrow fairways.
In order to get the course built, the city of Ortonville voted for a $30,000 bond referendum – two- to one.
In April 1941, there were 65 WPA men at work on the course, in two shifts
In 1941, the city asked residents to donate trees for the new course - shade trees were preferred.
In 1942, Ortonville planted 36,000 trees by city crews and WPA workers, many of these trees were planted on the course. That same year, the city bought a tractor for $610 for the course.
The cost of playing in 1943: either a $12.50 membership, or 50 cents/day during the week or 75 cents/day during the weekend. Junior memberships were $3.00.The newspaper article said, no food because of the food shortages and rationing.