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THE WEIRS TIMES, Thursday, March 25, 2010
MINI-GOLF from 1
by a few of Mother Nature’s summer storms, the orna- ments are taken down for the season. But unlike most fiberglass ornaments that you see on Mini-Golf courses today, the “Land- marks of New Hampshire” ornaments are wood-craft- ed originals that are re- furbished and repainted every winter. Some, after many years, like the Cog Railway engine, have to be completely rebuilt. “I probably spent about
fifty or so hours building the new engine,” said Cal. “I started in late Decem- ber and just finished it in mid-March. I had to do
it in my spare time since there’s plenty of other jobs around here to keep me busy.” The original Cog Railway engine, along with pas- senger and coal car, was built by Fred Thompson of Conway in the mid- 1960s, a couple of years after the Mini-Golf course opened in 1964 at the Rte 3 location. It was just one of seven Mini-Golf orna- ments built by Thompson after a chance meeting with Bob Lawton, Funspot owner. “I was driving with my
family in Conway when we passed by a house that had these birdhouses
The Cog Railway Passenger Car sits atop the West Alton Train Station. Both have been refinished and repainted for the upcoming season.
together over the years,” said Lawton. “You have to remember these are made of wood and are exposed to a lot of elements over the summer.” It’s been a few years
since Cal has done a com- plete rebuild of any of the ornaments. His last re- build was Kimball’s Castle and before that he rebuilt the North Conway Rail- road Station about ten years ago, a scale-model replica that takes six men to move. Cal also created his own
ornament, the West Camp- ton Schoolhouse, which he built from scratch and has since rebuilt.
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The inside and outside of the West Campton Schoolhouse have been refinished and painted.
BRENDAN SMITH PHOTOS
outside so I stopped in,” Lawton recalled. The house belonged to Thompson. Soon Bob was spending many hours at the real New Hampshire landmarks taking detailed measurements and then getting together with Fred who built the scale-model replicas. The other or- naments were the North Conway Train Station, The
Jackson Covered Bridge, Kimball’s Castle, Spindle Point Observatory, the cot- tage and the Sap House. The ornaments were,
and still are, almost a half-century later, wel- coming players on the challenging but friendly Mini-Golf course. “Cal has always been
an integral part of keep- ing these delicate pieces
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The Mount Washing-
ton, the first ornament built for the Mini-Golf course, by Jim Clough of Winnisquam, has been refurbished many times over the last 47 years and has been through the brunt of those many sum- mers, was fiberglassed by Cal years ago. Another of Clough’s originals, Waldo The Whale, had its bottom fiberglassed by Cal to help keep it in shape for maybe another fifty years. Cal’s handiwork in re-
building the Cog Railway engine is a major part of one of the busiest win- ters in refurbishing and rebuilding of the orna- ments. “We repair and paint
each ornament every year,” said Bob Lawton.
See MINI-GOLF on 29
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