Photos 1954: Banff & Crystal Downs(?)

[John Pflum]

Long Intro (golf content below): My maternal grandfather was a total shutter bug, and back in the 1950s he took a series of summer driving trips from Cincinnati to the Western US and Canada.  During those trips he hit every conceivable spot you can think of (in no particular order): Mt. Rushmore, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Mt. Hood, Mt. Rainier, Seattle, Lake Louise, Canadian Rockies, Rocky Mountain National Park, The Bad Lands, Crater Lake, San Francisco, Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, The Hoover Dam, The Petrified Forest, The Painted Desert, Zion National Park, and more........  You name it -- they saw it.  During these trips he took over 1,000 photos (remember this was the days of FILM and not digital) and had them mounted onto medium format slides.  I can remember as a little boy looking at the slides when I was over at my grandmother's house and was always fascinated by them. 

As a Christmas gift to my mom I scanned all the slides into a digital format to preserve them, and I also had a photo book made of some of the best.  Some of the photos are simply stunning -- the cover of magazines type stuff.  You can see a gallery of the photos here:

http://www.photobin.com/jpflumjr/grid?galleries=21730#home

Anyway, here is the golf content: As I was scanning I came across some photos of my grandparents playing golf at Banff Springs in what would have been 1954.  There was also a photo of my grandmother labeled "Crystal Downs".  I know they also took trips to Michigan but I can't readily identify that this is from my second-favorite-golf-course-on-the-planet.  I knew that my grandfather played but I didn't know about my grandmother.  I've played Crystal Down as few times and I know that there are others here who have as well.  Could this be taken from somewhere near the clubhouse?  Or perhaps near the 18th tee?  I think that is Lake Michigan in the background but I'm not sure of the perspective. 

Here are the golf photos:

http://www.pbase.com/jpflumjr/old_photos

Nothing to discuss just some interesting artifacts. 

jvdp

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Nice to see the pictures - especially carrying just a few clubs in a leather pencil bag.

[Peter Pallotta]

Just wonderful, John, thanks for sharing what for your family must feel like a real treasure chest. (Is that your mom in the pink jacket sitting by the side of the road, with the flowers growing behind here?) Lovely!!

I've only been to CD once, but that building perched up high in the upper right hand corner sure seems like the clubhouse/dining room, which means the photo was taken from behind it and to the left. 

Thanks again - what some folks could do with film and without cell=phones and digital is amazing, eh?

Peter

[Mike_DeVries]

John,

Very interesting to see the photo of the Downs -- too bad there weren't some of the golf course proper.  I believe the image is reversed in the gallery -- that is the home that is above and to the right of the 3rd hole, with the gap in the trees being where the garage/guest house is located.  I think your mom is standing near where the pro shop is today (the pro shop was completed in July, 1954, and was a simple wood structure).  From the presence of the Spotted Knapweed surrounding your mom, I would guess the photo was taken sometime in August, when it is in bloom.  Was the CD photo marked 1954?  Maybe they were there earlier, since there was only a dugout in the hillside originally.

Best,
Mike

[Chris_Blakely]

John,

Wonderful pictures, thank you for sharing.

I think I'm inspired to take a family vacation!! 

Chris

[Dan Kelly]

Nice!

I don't know how my favorite non-golf photo site (http://shorpy.com) collects its images -- but I'm guessing some of these would be welcome there. For example: http://www.photobin.com/jpflumjr/grid?galleries=21730#2850068 and http://www.photobin.com/jpflumjr/grid?galleries=21730#2849989 and http://www.photobin.com/jpflumjr/grid?galleries=21730#2849543.

Maybe this one, too: http://www.pbase.com/jpflumjr/image/141100612

[John Pflum]

Thanks for the kind words, guys.  That gallery of photos was only the best of the bunch.  All in all I scanned 1,161 photos. 

@PPallotta -- yes, that is my mom when she was 14 or 15 years old. 

@Mike DeVries -- Ah, I hadn't considered that the scan might have been reversed.  I remembered that house on the course but I couldn't place it.  There wasn't any date on the slide but this particular container of slides had 1954 on the outside.  Though it's possible it could have gotten mixed in with slides from another trip.  Do you happen to have contact information for anyone at CD?  Maybe someone involved in the history of the club?  I thought they might like a copy of the photo.  PS -- that is my grandmother in the photo, not my mom. 

[Philippe Binette]

Could it be that the picture is taken from the side of the road between the 16th green and 17th tee. (would explain the white post)

[Terry Lavin]

After graduating college, I spent the better part of a year hitchhiking across America and Canada.  I spent about ten weeks as a construction laborer at the Chateau Lake Louise, a magnificent hotel overlooking Lake Louise, just outside Banff.  It is an absolutely spellbinding area, and probably my favorite part of the Rockies (although the ride from Silverton to Ouray in Colorado is pretty special) in America or Canada.

Never saw the golf course, I was more of a naturalist in those days...

[Emile Bonfiglio]

Really cool, In the future maybe my kids will find my old cell phone and do the same thing.

[Gene Greco]

John:

    Your Mom on the tee on Devil's Cauldron could have been on the cover of a travel brochure or even Life Magazine at the time.

Priceless. Thanks for sharing

            Gene

[John Pflum]

@ Terry -- oh, they took that train ride from Silverton to Ouray, too.  There are a bunch of photos looking outside the windows of the train. 

@ Gene -- that is actually my grandmother but thanks for the compliment!  My grandfather was quite the amateur photographer. 

[Dan Kelly]

@ Terry -- oh, they took that train ride from Silverton to Ouray, too.  There are a bunch of photos looking outside the windows of the train. 

@ Gene -- that is actually my grandmother but thanks for the compliment!  My grandfather was quite the amateur photographer. 

God help us all.

Twitter has infected golfclubatlas.com....

[Terry Lavin]

@ Terry -- oh, they took that train ride from Silverton to Ouray, too.  There are a bunch of photos looking outside the windows of the train.  

@ Gene -- that is actually my grandmother but thanks for the compliment!  My grandfather was quite the amateur photographer.  

God help us all.

Twitter has infected golfclubatlas.com....

@ Dan Kelly:

I've seen this form on a bunch of other websites and I've never tweeted a single character, much less 140 of them!

[Dan Kelly]

@ Terry -- oh, they took that train ride from Silverton to Ouray, too.  There are a bunch of photos looking outside the windows of the train.  

@ Gene -- that is actually my grandmother but thanks for the compliment!  My grandfather was quite the amateur photographer.  

God help us all.

Twitter has infected golfclubatlas.com....

@ Dan Kelly:

I've seen this form on a bunch of other websites and I've never tweeted a single character, much less 140 of them!

But I'm NOT "@ Dan Kelly."

I'm "Dan Kelly."

Or, if you must, "Dan Kelly (TM)" -- thanks to Mr. Thomas E. Paul.

Where are you, TEP?

[Mike_DeVries]

Thanks for the kind words, guys.  That gallery of photos was only the best of the bunch.  All in all I scanned 1,161 photos. 

@PPallotta -- yes, that is my mom when she was 14 or 15 years old. 

@Mike DeVries -- Ah, I hadn't considered that the scan might have been reversed.  I remembered that house on the course but I couldn't place it.  There wasn't any date on the slide but this particular container of slides had 1954 on the outside.  Though it's possible it could have gotten mixed in with slides from another trip.  Do you happen to have contact information for anyone at CD?  Maybe someone involved in the history of the club?  I thought they might like a copy of the photo.  PS -- that is my grandmother in the photo, not my mom. 

John,
It still could be 1954 -- maybe just a little different angle with the pro shop to the right of your granfather - it's hard to tell with the foreground so dominant and less perspective of the golf course.  If you email me the shot, I can get it to the historian.  mike@devriesdesigns.com is my email.
Thanks,
Mike

[Steve Lang]

  John,

Your 1954 vintage look at the Devil's Cauldron from front tee



My 50 years later 2004 vintage view from back one


hmmmm bunkering

[George Freeman]

John,

Very interesting to see the photo of the Downs -- too bad there weren't some of the golf course proper.  I believe the image is reversed in the gallery -- that is the home that is above and to the right of the 3rd hole, with the gap in the trees being where the garage/guest house is located.  I think your mom is standing near where the pro shop is today (the pro shop was completed in July, 1954, and was a simple wood structure).  From the presence of the Spotted Knapweed surrounding your mom, I would guess the photo was taken sometime in August, when it is in bloom.  Was the CD photo marked 1954?  Maybe they were there earlier, since there was only a dugout in the hillside originally.

Best,
Mike

Mike - you would obviously know much better than me, but could that be one of the houses up above and behind 18th green?  If that was the case, the picture wouldn't be inverted as shown.  The road might be the one that wraps up and around the 18th hole.  

The picture as I'm thinking would be just to the left and out of this frame (neither of the houses in this image being the one in the original):

[Chris_Blakely]

John,

I was giving some thought to the fact that your grandparents and mother went on this trip in the 50's . . . and the first thing that popped into my head was how amazing it would have been to drive to these places through back roads and what not without interstate highways (as Ike's Federal Aid Highway Act did not go into existence until 1956 and the first highway did not get completed until years later)!!  Wow, what fun . . what an adventure.

Chris

[Ross Tuddenham]

John

Wow, great photos and what must have felt like a proper adventure, as mentioned with modern transport I doubt a trip with such wonderment could be recreated.  I was wondering what type of film or camera was used to take the photos and whether anyone knows how you could recreate the look of the photo’s using a modern digital camera or photo editing software?

[Tom Yost]

@ Terry -- oh, they took that train ride from Silverton to Ouray, too.  There are a bunch of photos looking outside the windows of the train.  

@ Gene -- that is actually my grandmother but thanks for the compliment!  My grandfather was quite the amateur photographer.  

God help us all.

Twitter has infected golfclubatlas.com....

@ Dan Kelly:

I've seen this form on a bunch of other websites and I've never tweeted a single character, much less 140 of them!

But I'm NOT "@ Dan Kelly."

I'm "Dan Kelly."

Or, if you must, "Dan Kelly (TM)" -- thanks to Mr. Thomas E. Paul.

Where are you, TEP?

I'm from an earlier generation, so if you don't mind, I'm going to call you:  /usr/dankelly

[Dan Kelly]

LOL.