The First Duckpin Museum is in California?

A new museum featuring the history of duckpin bowling in the town recently opened in the California beach community of Santa Cruz. Yes, Santa Cruz, California.

Ironic how the California town of Santa Cruz has a duckpin museum and active duckpin areas like Maryland, Connecticut, and Rhode Island do not. How about it National Duckpin Bowling Congress?

“Bowling has a long history in the Santa Cruz beach area. Santa Cruz Seaside Company archives document a 4-lane “duckpin” alley along the Boardwalk in 1909 operated by Victor A. Marini.”

Credit: Focus on Travel News

December 19, 2019 0

Potter NE Duckpin Lanes Still Make News After Almost 100 Years

The old-time, hand-set lanes in Potter, Nebraska are in the news again. Someone needs to tell this reporter that they are not the last of their kind.

Western Nebraska Observer – Here’s How Potter Became a Kingdom of Duckpin

November 2, 2019 0

Duckpin in Connecticut in 1856?

While not a bowling “center”, the historic Roseland Cottage in Woodstock, CT, has a 1-lane setup that was built in 1846. Note that it served for both tenpin and duckpin and used manual pin-setting.

While we cannot find a record of when duckpin was first included (original or much later) but there is a reference in an 1856 letter to “bowling the small pins” while visiting Henry Bowen to discuss the “fermenting political ugliness in the South”. We have so far been unable to obtain a copy of the letter, but the information was shared by the letter’s owner, a private collector.

If accurate, that potentially moves duckpins presence in the USA back another few decades from its mention on the original building plans of the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island in Michigan.

July 13, 2019 0

Duckpins in Oregon in 1897!

This article from 2007 shows that duckpin bowling was probably common on the West Coast. In this case, the location is Portland, Oregon.

The Hendricks Building is on the National Historic Register. It is documented that the building opened in 1897 and housed a saloon, “bawdy rooms”, a card room, and…

…a duckpin bowling alley.

We already know there was a duckpin center in Cannon Beach, Oregon. So there was definitely an interest and participation. What is most interesting to me is the aspect of a duckpin bowling alley being here in 1897. When taken in context of the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island having one in its architectural drawings of 1878, the history of the game needs to be rewritten.

East Oregonian

June 5, 2019 0