Curling Clubs in Detroit & Vicinity 1840 - 1911

The Switch to Granite

The Orchard Lake Curling Club in the 1830s used wooden curling stones for lack of granite.  The Detroit City; The Granite and The Thistle Curling Clubs in Detroit during the same time-frame used iron stones.  The iron stones were at least 15 pounds heavier than the wooden blocks.  Below is a picture of an iron stone once used in Detroit.  It is currently in storage at The Detroit Historical Society.  (Just a tad rusty).

The switch to granite stones began in 1868 when members of the Detroit Thistle Club began to “rapidly substitute their barbarous cast-iron decoy-duck, teapot looking amazements with real stones, polished out of the hardest granite, obtained from experienced makers in Gault County, Waterloo, Ontario.” 

Today curlers around the world cherish the granite from Ailsa Craig.  But, in 1868 one author wrote:  “A few specimens of Ailsa Craig stones have recently been introduced to the ice.  They are tolerably keen runners, but light in proportion to their bulk”. 

The concave bottom or running surface of the stone was not proposed until the 1870s.  So, the first stones (iron and granite) in Detroit were the flat bottom variety. 

My, oh my.  How times have changed.

Good Curling, Angus.

Honey! I shrunk the House.

Since the mid 1800’s the rules of curling, as written by the Royal Caledonian Curling Club, described the house as a circle with a seven foot radius - or a diameter of 14 feet.  These rules were reiterated by the Grand National Curling Club in the USA. 

During the Scots Tour to Canada and The USA in 1937-38 nearly all USA and Canadian curling clubs were playing on ice where the house had a diameter 12 feet.  A clear violation of the Rules of the game.  How, why and exactly when this evolved is unclear.  At the 1938 annual meeting of the Royal Club, the Scots that had curled on the smaller ice proposed that the rules be modified to stipulate that the scoring area be not less than 12 feet in diameter and not more than 14 feet in diameter.  This was approved and the rules published in 1938 stated this changed.

Though a member of The Grand National Curling Club, The Detroit Curling Club was more aligned with the Ontario Curling Association.  Perhaps the OCA modified the rules earlier.  Newspaper articles we have uncovered about The Club state that the house was a 14 foot circle from 1886 to 1903.  We have not found any photos to verify this fact.

In 1906 when the building and clubhouse were rebuilt the ice contained six sheets and the size of the house shrank to 12 feet in diameter, which remains the size of the house we use today.

Pictures of The Club in 1935 show unpainted ice and only black lines outlining the house, button, tee line and the line from tee to hack (no center line from tee to tee existed).  Painting the rings did not start until 1936.  These pictures are B&W so we are not positive what colors were used.  The main sheet of ice remained unpainted so that you could see the concrete floor below the ice.

Lang may ur lum reek, Angus.

Bonspiel Rap

First – The Meeting

Filled with admiration

For this great occasion,

Calls for explanation

And illumination

In elegant narration,

Men of every nation,

Every age and station,

Wild with fascination

Or hallucination

Met to play the game of curling

                        On the slippery ice,

Polished granites deftly hurling,

                        By the skip’s advice.

Second – The Playing

Some with animation,

Some with perturbation,

Some with exultation,

Others with vexation,

With good calculation

And determination

To make a great sensation

And raise their estimation,

And all with inclination

To duly play the game of curling,

                        On the slippery ice,

Polished granites deftly hurling,

                        By the skip’s advice.

Anon.

Euphemistically yours, Angus.