History of Cascades Golf Course

Taken in part from reports of the City of Bloomington Board of Park Commissioners and

THE HISTORY OF CASCADES GOLF COURSE AND THE BLOOMINGTON CITY GOLF TOURNAMENT

We recognize that Cascades Golf Course sits on Native land. The city as well as City administrative buildings are on the traditional homelands of the Miami, Delaware, Potawatomi, and Shawnee people and we acknowledge they are past, present, and future caretakers of this land.

We also acknowledge that much of the economic progress and development in Indiana and specifically Bloomington resulted from the unpaid labor and forced servitude of People of Color – specifically enslaved African labor.   We acknowledge that this land remains home to and a site of gathering and healing for many indigenous and other people of color and commit to the work necessary to create and promote a more equitable and just Bloomington.  We move forward knowing and acknowledging our rich, complicated, and sometimes painful past so that we can learn from it and create a true land of opportunity.

The Bloomington Golf Association formed in 1923 with the intention of building a municipal golf course for the Bloomington community. The Association approached local businessmen to assist in the purchase of 70 acres west of Cascade Valley to build a golf course. Scottish-born Thomas Bendelow, a famous golf architect, was hired along with Indianapolis-based landscape architect Arthur W. Brayton in 1926 to create the layout of the golf course.  Frank M. Miller and Willard Farr were hired in the spring of 1926 to build the greens, sow grass, and disc the existing cornfield on the south end of the property.

Cascades Golf Course (known by other names, including Cascade Golf Course) first opened for play on June 1, 1927. The official dedication took place June 28, 1928.   The first Bloomington City Golf Tournament was held at Cascades in 1929. It remains the longest-running match play tournament in Indiana.  The Board of Park Commissioners and the Bloomington Golf Association agreed to build an additional nine holes at Cascades Golf Course in 1930. According to records, the process did not go smoothly and the Board of Park Commissioners took over control of the golf course on January 3, 1933.