Last summer I had good intentions to visit various sites to take photographs of what they look like today. The Eagle Lake Golf Course of the late 1920s was one of them, but I never made it. However, the Whaleback Fire did hinder some expeditions. John “Burt” Christie, one of the early operaters of the Eagle Lake Resort, was an interesting figure at the lake’s south shore. Besides the resort, he eventually became the caretaker of Gallatin House and the Gallatin properties at the lake.
By the mid-1920s, the golfing craze was in full swing across the nation and Christie joined in. Christie and R.H. Waite designed a nine-hole golf course laid out between Gallatin Beach to near present day Merrill Campground. The length of the holes varied from 140 to 210 yards. The course had a variety of obstacles including three log traps, two groves of trees, several sand traps and two water hazards. Par for the course was 34, but it was conceded as unrealistic due to the nature of the course. Irvin S. Best held the record with a par 38 and Alfreda Birmingham held the women’s record with a par 41. The true test of the golfer’s skill was not to lose his golf ball in one of the many “prairie dog holes”that plaqued the course. In 1930s with the continued drop of the lake level, as well as visitors, the course was abandoned.