The year was 1957: Dwight Eisenhower was in the White House, Elvis Presley appeared on the Ed Sullivan show from the waist up only (and also bought Graceland), and professional golfers Nancy Lopez, Seve Ballesteros, Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer, and Payne Stewart were born.

Also that year, two merchant marine brothers from San Francisco, afresh from sailing the seven seas and looking for a change of pace, found themselves drawn to the crystal clear waters of Lake Tahoe.

Noticing a void in family entertainment, and needing a way to keep their children busy during their long summer vacations in the mountains, the brothers decided to build a miniature golf course.

With the mechanical skills they honed at sea, they designed and built the two courses still in operation today. They first built the Mountain Course; a couple years later they built the Lake Course. The 38 holes were made using a combination of geometry, physics, and simple machines, and despite their relative simplicity (and obvious lack of new-age gadgetry), present a timeless challenge to golfers of all abilities.

For the next several decades the brothers, with the help of their children and grandchildren, made annual trips up to Tahoe to open and run the miniature golf courses.

Their tradition continued until 1998, when they sold the courses to some Tahoe locals, who along with their children, continue to operate them to this day.

Thank you for stopping by our website, and we invite you to come on down to Kings Beach Miniature Golf to make puttin’ a-round on our ’57 Mini a part of your family’s history.