Way Up Nort' Der, Eh? (new course in development)

[superberry]

I contacted them for more info, and to volunteer.

[WillACarpenter]

240 shooting towards water, through trees...can totally be a par 4...especially if the par 3's are all mad short (like sub 200' through the FOREST)

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[jhgonzo]

Originally Posted by superberry

I contacted them for more info, and to volunteer.

I sent out an e-mail, too, offering to even make the voyage up there to give some input, but initially I just wanted to see if they had a preliminary course layout I could check out. I also wanted to encourage them to lengthen things up and make it challenging, also understanding that the numbers they have right now on paper are likely to change once they get out there and start working on it.

Here's a snippet of what I sent to them:

If properly designed and maintained, I guarantee that people will travel hours to play the course, and indeed there are some far-north disc golf destinations that accomplish just that (Sandy Point Resort in Lac du Flambeau, WI, and Highbridge Hills in Highbridge, WI, being the closest neighbors to your neck o' the woods). I'd offer my input and volunteer to work on this project, but given my location I'm not sure how feasible that would be (I live in Cleveland, WI, just south of Manitowoc and north of Sheboygan). If unsolicited input is accepted, my only suggestion--based upon my reading of the preliminary plans--would be to include longer holes and multiple tees...I read that the hole average would be between 200-240 feet, which is totally acceptable, but to make the course a TRUE destination for travelling disc golfers, you would need to ensure enough challenge for advanced players (who are typically the ones that travel great distances to play top courses).

I wanted to share this very enthusiastic reply I received recently, and I've left the contact info in there so anyone who may live a little closer can get directly involved instead of taking a backseat and waiting for this thing to get done:


Hello Jason
Thank you very much for your interest in the disc golf course information. I am at the Chamber today and the director shared this message with me. I am the MSU Extension Director that worked with Warren on the disc golf course design. We have the plan to allow and include championship length tee boxes as well as amateur so that we can plan to hold tournaments. As I have done research on this and understand the value of a project like this, your information is wonderful and I’d like anything that you would like to input. As we move along I’ll keep you up-to-date on this and welcome your input. As this sport is new to our community, there is a learning curve for our residents. There is support from the city, chamber, county as well as others.
Your input is valuable to us as we can share information from outside the community expressing the potential of the course to the community.
I will be walking the course as we staked it recently and we’ll be looking at what brushing and tree removal will need to be done. The terrain is partially hilly and challenging incorporating the mining sites that once provided iron ore to the region. We will incorporate narrative signage with our tee boxes as well as other areas to make it even more interesting.
We will look to include the advanced player requirements and I look forward to meeting you in the future.
Julie Melchiori – Iron County MSU Extension and Economic Development Director
906-875-0603 or 906-875-6688


Bill Leonoff, Exec Dir
Iron County Chamber of Commerce
906-265-3822

[Trashthrasher]

I use to have family in Iron river, MI & it's an old beat down kinda town. I remember when I was younger there wasn't much to do up there but get in trouble. I'll have to look in to this a bit further & see where they are thinkin' of putting it.

[billnchristy]

Look at it this way, at least they are going to allow us to use what is a pretty historic and otherwise pretty useless piece of land.

I cannot wait to see pics.

[jhgonzo]

Originally Posted by Trashthrasher

I use to have family in Iron river, MI & it's an old beat down kinda town. I remember when I was younger there wasn't much to do up there but get in trouble. I'll have to look in to this a bit further & see where they are thinkin' of putting it.

I've been through Iron River once years ago, but don't remember too much about it--must've been pretty lackluster to not stand out in my memory.

If you read the original article I posted, you'll see exactly where the proposed site is. And it sounds like MSU has a lot of plans for this area; I got sidetracked reading some of their other literature while researching this course, and there's definitely a drive to clean up and restore this historic area (saw a few "concept photos" of what they envision the area looking like in the near future).

As mentioned earlier, they are VERY open to input from the DG community as a whole, so anyone interested, nearby the area or not, should contact them and express your ideas. I'd hate to see what sounds like a beatiful piece of land being under-utilized for a DG course, or to be installed with major flaws and/or safety hazards.

[jhgonzo]

Just an FYI...

This course is now installed, and a big thanks to superberry for making his way up there and providing some guidance as to what the DG community expects from such awesome terrain! It sounded like the guys originally working on it were more interested in a project geared toward the community, but without having much of an idea of how to properly design a course. Sounds like there's some real potential out there for course expansion...

Hopefully I'll get to play it this season, although I may wait until it's broken in a little more.

Course profile for The Tailings