Mountain Lake - Fred Ruth - Raynor - models:
This is from my first text of the Mountain Lake chapter of the Raynr book (unedited, as yet by that famous Left-coast Armenian) - most of this information was gathered from their club history (there, now you club history being wrong guys - go at it)
Oliver Gould Jennings who was instrumental in hiring Seth for his Country Club of Fairfield course the year before was in some way involved in the Mountain Lake plan with Fred Ruth and it was most likely that his efforts were instrumental in convincing Raynor to come to Mountain Lake. The connection is unclear but as we shall see his influence was felt in a number of ways with Raynor.
When first contacted, Raynor declined, attributing his decline to a heavy workload up north and that he also felt he did not have sufficient knowledge of the climate and growing conditions to handle the Mountain Lake commission properly. ......... Note, no mention of Macdonald) ...........Fred Ruth persisted and undoubtedly with the help of Jennings, Raynor finally relented and agreed to visit to look over the property. Fred Ruth was jubilant and pledged he would personally give Seth every possible assistance with the project.
Olmsted visited the Ruth property in late 1914 and was impressed with the character of the property, referring to Iron Mountain with its “red pie-crust top” and 300-plus foot elevation, as the highest point of land within sixty miles of the Atlantic Ocean between Key West and the Orange Mountains in New Jersey.
The project was an ambitious one that included hundreds of building lots with appropriate access roads and even a railroad station. By May 1915 the basic layout for the course and the housing plan was complete and was sent to Seth for inspection and approval with a stipulation that the completion date be in time for the 1916-1917 vacation season. Raynor had never even visited Florida let alone built there. Ruth and Olmstead continued to pressure Raynor asking him to visit so he could see the project first hand and better see the sub-tropic climate's growing conditions first hand. Finally agreeing, Seth first visited another property owned by Ruth the renowned Belleaire Hotel in Clearwater where he inspected the hotel’s two courses. He was driven to Mountain Lake where Seth was surprised at the elevation and admired the beauty of lake “nestled against the slopes of Iron Mountain”.
With landscape designer Olmstead at his side, Raynor walked the property, which for Florida was unique in that the property actually had hills and rolling land. With Olmstead chattering and cajoling him with various descriptions of views, hole locations, as well as his depicting his own forte landscape design, Raynor became more receptive to the project and was impressed with Olmsted’s enthusiasm. Fred Olmstead was familiar with Raynor’s previous projects and the wealthy cliental he had been building for. The project needed a designer of Raynor’s stature. Compromises for the completion date were agreed to and the design of the golf course soon began. Topo maps and residential plans were finalized and sent to Raynor's office up north.
“Raynor began to walk the course areas often accompanied by Olmsted” and often joined by Ruth. “As Raynor walked, the layout of the course began to materialize in his mind as he would see a fairway and green in first one place and then another in his mind’s eye. At night he would sit down with Olmsted’s contour map and try to hook the imagined pieces together into the course he visualized”. Finally all fell into place and the course design was turned over Olmsted to be incorporated into the blueprint of the entire tract.
The crew of men with their mule teams began clearing the land and the Ruth brothers began inquiring among the golf friends for the services of a golf professional for the 1917 winter season. But it soon became obvious that completion the full 18 hole golf course ready for play by Christmas 1916 was unrealistic.
“As the models began to arrive for the first holes, Ruth had to inform Raynor that plans had changed and they would have to finish nine holes first and then tackle the remaining nine after the first nine were ready to play”. According to their club history, this was discouraging news for Raynor but he soon sent them a plan that would afford the completion of a nine by using holes 1 through 6 then making 16, 17 and 18 temporarily the finishing holes of the temporary nine. This was often done to get a portion of a course playable.
This would be the first of a series of delay that would result in the first nine holes at Mountain Lake taking 5 years to complete. It would take an additional 2 years to complete the second nine holes - a project that began in 1915 and ended (successfully) in 1921.
Raynor’s hole models continued to arrive throughout the summer of 1915 and work continued on the course. Work also continued on the access roads and railroad station that would eventually service the Atlantic Coast Line passenger trains. The names of Olmsted and Raynor attracted much attention to the project and although the process was slow in the beginning, sales began to pick up and the project looked to be successful. Because of the various delays caused by the vastness of the project, a temporary loss of interest by most Americans because of the World War I, and a restricted cash flow, it was not until 1919 that the first nine holes at Mountain Lake was ready officially open for play.