Mandy's Hunt for History - Golfing Mandy

Mandy ran across a fun snippet of history the other day, it was about miniature golf in El Paso. Who doesn't enjoy a game of miniature golf? The fun, bright themed courses, the challenge to not only beat your competitor but the course as well, Mandy wanted to know more!

On May 23, 1930 it was reported in the El Paso Evening Post that the business of miniature golf was booming. Since January of that year, 7 privately owned courses had been built in the city. Which was the first course built Mandy wondered. Mandy decided in order to find out she needed to do some research.

Mandy discovered the following 1929 article in the El Paso Evening Post.

El Paso Evening Post, October 18, 1929, pg. 23, captured May 20, 2020 from microfilm

Turns out a miniature golf course was built at Washington Park in the fall of 1929 by J. E. Brown. He named his course Pas-O-Link and included all the fun and challenging obstacles a regular golf course would, including bridges, streams, and sand bunkers. Mr. Brown wanted the public to be able to play at night as well, so the course was being wired for lighting. The article was brief and included no photos. Oh, what did it look like Mandy wondered...

If Pas-O-Link miniature golf course looked like Mandy imagined it would be so much fun to play on she thought. Mandy continued to scroll through the microfilm and ran across the following ad the next day.

El Paso Evening Post, October 19, 2020, pg. 16, captured May 20, 2020 from microfilm.

The photo in the ad is not the best but at least we get an idea as to what the entrance looked like. Seems like there was plenty of shade with all those trees!

Mandy discovered in other ads that it was only 25 cents to play at Pas-O-Link Golf Course - what a bargain!

Who's up for a game of golf? Mandy's got next!