Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
As the local and national reputation of Spring Fountain Park (now the town of Winona Lake) grew, the park had a number of tourist and recreational features. Some summers as many as 250,000 visitors would come, partially to hear Chautauqua speakers, partially to participate in the growing Bible conferences, and partially just to enjoy a bucolic holiday beside the lake.
Several of the lesser-known but interesting attractions included Garfield Park, the Switchback Railway, Roque courts, and the biblical miniature golf course. Garfield Park stretched from the current Ninth Street to the Twelfth Street Hill, also known as Evangel Hill. It fronted on Park Avenue and was bounded by the steep rise that led to Ludlow Avenue (now Sunday Lane).
Garfield Park
Situated below the Billy Sunday Home, Garfield Park was named in the 1890s for the recently-assassinated U.S. President James Garfield. Soon after his death in September 1881, a hydraulic ram was purchased from his farm near Mentor, Ohio, and brought to the park where it harnessed a large, natural spring. The enterprising Beyer brothers were thus able to supply water to many cottages along the hillside while creating a tourist curiosity.
The Studebaker Fountain was built near the Auditorium to harness one of the many natural springs in Garfield Park. The Studebaker Spring was donated by auto magnate J. M. Studebaker, original owner of the Tippecanoe Place mansion in South Bend and an early director of the Winona Assembly. Built in 1902, the fountain’s dolphin spout is surrounded by granite and marble veneered walls.
Local news media also reported on Feb. 22, 1906, that auto magnate J. M. Studebaker of South Bend had donated 100 golden pheasants to Winona Lake. The birds were to be placed in an aviary near Kosciusko Lodge, an inn at the south end of the park.
The Switchback Railway
The Switchback Coasting Railway at Winona, which early maps show was located approximately where Terrace Drive is now (the 9th Street hill street was not created until the 1950s), was advertised as “elegantly constructed, very amusing, and perfectly safe.”
The Winona switchback was based on LaMarcus Adna Thompson’s design of the original Switchback Railway at New York’s Coney Island, which was the first roller coaster designed as an amusement ride in America. For five cents, riders of the Winona train would climb a tower to board a large bench-like car which was then pushed off to coast 600 feet (183 m) down the track to another tower. The car went just over 6 mph (9.7 km/h). At the top of the other tower the vehicle was switched to a return track or "switched back" (hence the name).
The park was also provided with swings, croquet grounds, roque courts, dancing halls, feed barn, electric lights, gas, a system of natural water works, springs and flowing wells, artificial lakes, flower gardens and much more.
Roque Courts
One of the pastimes at early Winona was the game of roque. Roque is similar to croquet except it was played on a hard court with a small edge around it. Caroming balls off the raised edge became part of the strategy of the game. Roque tournaments brought hundreds of people to Winona Lake in the 1910s through the 1930s.
Regional tournaments were often held at Winona's splendid facility located at the center of the island. Popular in the first quarter of the 20th century and billed "the Game of the Century" by its enthusiasts, it was an Olympic sport in the 1904 Summer Games, replacing croquet. A news report from July of 1928 noted that a roque tourney at Winona Lake drew contestants from New Jersey, Florida, Ohio, Illinois, California and Indiana.
In June 2025, the Warsaw Times-Union, under its “100 Years Ago” Remember When column, said, “The American Roque News, a magazine issued twice a year by the American Roque League, and whose national tournament this year is on the Sunday courts at Winona, contains an article on sports by Judge L. W. Royse. The magazine is now edited by C. R Zimmerman of Warsaw, who states that the coming national tournament at Winona will attract roque players from Maine to California.”
The newspaper also noted that local roque players were highly elated over the “Ma Sunday Roque Courts.” The four courts, which were opened in June of 1924, cost Mrs. Billy Sunday nearly $4,000. The courts were said to be the very finest in the country, equipped with lockers and toilets, and even a spring, sending forth “as pure a drink of cold water as William J. Bryan could wish.”
Roque, it seems, was the pickleball rage of its day.
Biblical Miniature Golf — Puttin’ for the Lord
As the Winona Bible Conference grew to become the world’s largest Bible Conference, a unique attraction linked biblical references to the game of miniature golf. An 18-hole putt-putt course, located next to the Billy Sunday Tabernacle on Park Avenue, was named “Egypt to Canaan” with the subtitle “Forty Strokes Through the Wilderness.”
Each hole was named for a biblical place or event from the Old Testament books of Genesis, Exodus, Numbers or Deuteronomy. Sixteen of the holes were par 2, but four were par 3s. The par 3 holes were Red Sea, Kadesh, Mount Nebo and Star of David.
The course was billed as “A New Idea in Instructional Recreation.” Playing the course, it suggested, was “recalling the hazards encountered by Israel in the Old Testament.” The scorecard closed with “Play golf here often. Read and practice your Bible daily.”
