Miniature golf courses sprang up all over the United States in the late 1920s with the invention of a kind of artificial turf. Rumors spread during the spring and summer of 1930 that Carlisle was soon to have a miniature golf course. In July, the rumors were substantiated when The Evening Sentinel reported that Earl W. Frycklund was planning to build a course on the Bucher plot to the east of South College Street and the Walnut Bottom Road. The course was expected to be “one of the largest and most up to date in this section of the state.”1
Named the Carlysle Miniature Golf Course, the 18-hole course officially opened at 7 o’clock on the evening of July 31, 1930. Free prizes were given on opening night, and the first prize for the lowest score was a set of matched golf clubs. The next lowest score received a box of golf balls. It cost 25 cents to play the course, and free instruction was given. Ice cream and soft drinks were available.2
A miniature golf tournament was held there on September 3, 1930, for eligible players. Playing for the ladies were Mrs. Theodore Frederick, Jr., Miss Anna Davis, Miss Marjorie Fetter, Miss Ruth Hoy, Miss Ruth Fry, Mrs. T. C. Keller, Miss Helen Ruhl, and Mrs. A. Hemminger. Playing for the gentlemen were M. L. Ritter of Newport, O. L. Craig, Samuel Bowers, Mr. Singerman, Chauncey Goodrich, and Verna Sweger.3
CCHS Photo 34-32-02. Photo courtesy of Earl’s wife Revenda Frycklund via Ann K. Hoffer.
Mr. Frycklund advertised in June 1932 that the Depression had ended, and miniature golf had returned as the most popular sport. The cost to play his 18-hole course was now reduced from 25 cents to 15 cents.4 The course opened yearly in April and closed for the winter. In 1935 the course, now called Frycklund’s Miniature Golf Course, was renovated with an all-new playing surface. The public was invited to play for free at the reopening on Wednesday night August 14, and after the opening the new price to play the course was reduced to 15 cents.5
By 1935, Earl Frycklund had installed an Esso gasoline pump on his property and also opened a Bar-B-Q restaurant. In 1938 he advertised that the Esso station and the restaurant would remain open for the winter. What is puzzling about the ads in the newspaper is that they continue to describe the location of Frycklund’s as South College and Rt. 11 when it was clearly on South College and Walnut Bottom Road.6
Earl and Revenda Frycklund standing behind the 1941 station wagon. CCHS Photo 34-32-03. Courtesy of Earl’s wife Revenda Frycklund via Ann K. Hoffer.
A rare golden eagle was displayed at the miniature golf course in 1944. The newspaper reported that “the eagle had been shot by a farmer in the vicinity of Newville some time ago while disturbing the farmer’s chickens…[The eagle was] “presented by the farmer to Dr. William R. Shearer [of Carlisle] who presented it to Frycklund, who obtained permission from the State and had the bird mounted by a Hanover taxidermist. It has a wingspan of 6 feet, 2 inches.”7
During the 1940’s the Frycklund’s also operated the Wal-Rok Kennels which adjoined the golf course. In 1952, they sold their Bar-B-Q business and miniature golf course to Wilhelmine Welsh who took over the place on Wednesday, August 27, 1952.8 In 1957 she sold it to Leslie V. Bentley, who had been one of the owners of the Molly Pitcher Hotel, and he opened the Walnut Bottom Tavern and Steakhouse. The tavern, a favorite of Dickinson Law School and Dickinson College students, was gutted by fire in August 1979. Developers purchased the land, and a number of townhouses called “Old Town Row” were built on the site in 1986.
