Striking it RICH
STORY BY
CRAIG MACDONALD
ARTWORK BY BILL ANDERSON
When miners said they made a “rich strike” in the 1850s, it didn’t
necessarily involve gold. Sometimes it meant they knocked down all
bowling pins with the first ball. Forty-niners bowling in the
Sierra? Say What? Yes, it’s true. After working hard mining all day,
many found relief and enjoyment with the ageless sport of bowling.
Some even started spending more time bowling than mining.
“The rolling of balls never ceased for as much as 10 consecutive
minutes during any 24-hour period and the only difference Sunday
made was that it never ceased for one minute,” observed Louise
Amelia Knapp Smith Clapp of Rich Bar.
The growing popularity of the sport prompted the set up of one or
two lane alleys all around the Sierra. In Downieville, they appeared
beneath the saloon of John Craycroft. Gold Spring (near Columbia)
featured The Bowling Alley...
Other stories and lectures by
MacDonald include:
Murphys
Master of Light
Elope to Big Bear Lake
Craig
MacDonald's Murphys Story
Diamond Valley Lake
A Golden Child
is Born
Lecture to Sons of
American Revolution in Alameda, California
Craig MacDonald and sister
Susan
MacDonald Bergtholdt are involved in the Daughters of American
Revolution in the San Francisco Bay Area. Their father,
Franklin MacDonald,
graduated from Stanford University and was a professor of English at
San Jose State University.
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