More old questions answered by new discoveries.

In the last post I talked about the as-built map of the original irrigation system and what a treasure map it seems to be. Pure gold. Maybe it is more of a Rosetta Stone pointing us in the right direction to look for more discoveries. I have had so many questions over 23 years about that old system, the odd layout, the story of the 7th hole. Below are a couple of pictures of what we believe to be the 18 hole routing from Wayne Stiles. His Last. It hangs in the clubhouse. Each hole has two numbers, one is circled. The key reads "circle original 9 built 1936, plain number is what it will become after second 9 is built in 1937", which obviously never happened. Hole #16 is a 400 yd par 4 dogleg left. Exactly what and where I assumed the original 7th hole was. Hole #7 a 185 par 3 using the same green complex. Both are the location discussed in the last post shown on the map labeled "Water Mains & Tree lines". So you can see why I always thought the green was moved from 8 to its current location. The physical evidence of the ground features sure make it seem that it was there. The question now is for how long? On this routing plan there is a yellow line showing that  par 3 fwy. The tee location is about where the current 7 green is located. Similar to the location of the "15th" on this map only opposite direction. The remnants on the ground clearly show a green complex but the new as-built proves that the location was abandoned by December 12, 1938. I always assumed 7 green was much newer say the 1950's. Several things disprove this theory: the as-built map and the aerial photographs posted on Twitter that I was tagged in.  

Picture of the corner of 6,7 8 on same map.

South east corner close up of  1939 aerial

 The other major discovery was the term "fire valve" used all over this as-built. The engineer who is designing the new irrigation system planted a seed saying maybe original owner (Bigelow) was planning a development. I replied that has never been mentioned in our history. Houses came in the 60's as a way to save the course from development. I remembered I had some old maps still in my office so  I rolled one out that was never labeled. It is vintage blue paper and shows a similar 18 hole routing to the one hanging in the clubhouse (the white lines) and clearly shows house lots. Then someone, presumably Stiles, used yellow chalk? to draw yet another alternate routing with house lots. The bell went off. Proof as to why the damn main line was put in so deep (6 feet in most places and 3 where it is in the water table). It always felt like a municipal water system but I never heard anything about houses under the Bigelow regime. I had seen this map a few times but it never clicked what it was until I had the irrigation as-built and followed this train of thought. The map is not named or signed but is clearly vintage. Is it simply Proof positive that Robert Bigelow was at least thinking about housing. Enough so that he installed the irrigation system to double as a water supply system year round.

18 hole routing's with house lots

It sheds some light on the odd rectangular routing that we have and the depth of main line irrigation. It there any way to prove this is Stiles work? Is this just doodles of a landscape architect turned golf course architect? We may never know but it has been fun learning more about our history which all started by the chance gift of the original irrigation as-built.