During the late 1800’s the first golf courses began to spring up in the United States. Over the next several decades, especially during the Roaring Twenties, the game’s popularity would increase significantly.

Imagine visiting Rangeley in the early 1900’s and even then, playing a round of golf. That’s how long Mingo Springs Golf Course has been around.

A single sentence in the Lewiston Sun Journal, July 18, 1924, under RANGELEY news states, “A new golf course has been opened in Mingo Springs.”

I tried to imagine what it was like back then. Of course, it wasn’t the full eighteen holes enjoyed now, but it was on its way.

I looked at old photographs and postcards and thought about who it was that was lucky enough to play way back then. Was it people who had returned from WWI? Was it your average Joe or was it more likely groups of successful businessmen.

Unless you were very wealthy, air conditioning was not an option, only having just become available for residential use in about 1915. Perhaps, during the summer months folks packed up their Packards and drove North to escape the hot, overcrowded city. What a pleasure it must have been then, as it is now, to cool off here in the mountains. It sounds delightful. Or maybe they took a train.

Either way, I’m sure I would have been pleased as punch to have found a beautiful course to play on. I know this for sure because I love it now. I look forward to golf season increasingly each year. I can’t imagine how much more I would like it if I were any good. Alas, I found the game late in life.

Jon Chodosh on the other hand, recalls playing at Mingo (Golf Course) when he was a very young child.

When speaking to Chodosh, whose family has been sole owners for about 50 years, he tried to summarize the history of it. One thing I hadn’t known is that although both the front and the back nine have been around for one hundred years, they weren’t 18 holes, together as one, for a very long time.

Chodosh, “History is a weird thing and I think what’s important is not the precise date, but just the fact that it’s been in existence for 100 years. We’d like to celebrate that. And Kevin Banfield, who’s running the inside operation for us, is planning a celebration of that this summer.”

I’m not surprised there is no exact date to refer to. A golf course, unlike a storefront, can’t exactly hang up a shingle and mark the date with photoshoot, fanfare, and grand opening.  No first sale with a receipt to find. There must have been so much landscaping to be done- trees to cut, brush to move, paths to create. Unless an undiscovered journal is miraculously unearthed, how can we know the exact date a certain lucky individual, (or group of gatherers), enjoyed the first complete nine holes in the beautiful open meadows of Mingo Springs.

What Chodosh did share was that originally there were two privately owned independent courses. He said the Country Club side, which is now the front nine, was built and privately owned by a group of Boston businessmen and was not open to the public.

Chodosh recalled, when he was around 10 or 11 years old, having met. the golf pro, Sy Pillsbury, whose family also happened to be some of the original Rangeley settlers.

He also recalled that at some point what is now the back nine of the golf course, part of the Mingo Springs Hotel, became public. He knows this for a fact because in his youth, he was a caddy there. At that time Henry Cottrell was the owner. He ran the golf course, and his son Steve, who was a teenager, ran the shop. It was sometime around this time that Cottrell closed the hotel, took the main building down, and sold off the cabins.

Fast forward to 1968, Jon’s parents, Paul and Melba Chodosh, along with three other couples- Tom and Dorli Bates, Carl and Peggy Davis, (who owned the local marina on Rangeley Lake), and Paul and Pat Gimbel, bought the back nine, what was known then as Mingo Springs Golf Course, from Cottrell. This purchase included the big white farmhouse (adjacent to what is now the 15^th hole).

A couple of years later, two of the couples dropped out, and the Country Club side was in bankruptcy. The property was being foreclosed and was about to go up for auction.

Chodosh, “My parents and Tom and Dorli  Bates bought it because it was just going to have houses all over it, and they combined the two courses and made an 18-hole course.”

So with this in mind, the current configuration is at about the 50 year mark.  It opened in 1972.

Chodosh continued, “After another couple of years, Tom decided that he either wanted to make the course private, the way that it was originally, or he wanted to be bought out. So, my parents bought him out.”

That was around 1974. His family has run it solely ever since then. Paul and Melba Chodosh, Jon’s parents, ran it together until Paul passed away in 2008. His mother, Melba ran it, with help, up until her passing in 2015.

Chodosh, “I’ve been running it since then. The course has gone through a lot of different changes, but it reached a different level as far as the quality of golf is concerned when Kyle Ladd took over about 16 years ago, when he started working as our superintendent. Everything about the course is better now: the way that it appears, the way that it plays. The level of difficulty increased, the greens improved, and it’s now become a destination for golfers all over the state.”

Besides Ladd, Chodosh was sure to mention the key role that the late John Bicknell had in improving Mingo Springs. “John worked for us for a very long time and built a lot of the gardens on the course. A lot of the rock walls were built by him. John also built, almost single handedly, the three and a half mile walking trail that has several trailheads. And more recently, Kevin Banfield has upgraded our proshop and our operating systems.  He has helped our business continue to grow.”

The upgrades that were made back then, combined with the recent ramifications of the pandemic, have resulted in a business that is now thriving. People needed something to do that was safe so they could be outdoors and so they wouldn’t be on top of one another. “Golf has become very popular again, and so we’re doing well.”

Not only are they doing well, but they, the family (he and his four siblings: (Pam, Josh, Jim, and Hiram) are doing what they can to ensure things will stay as such in perpetuity.

Chodosh, “The golf course consists of a rather large piece of property. The property is a total of about 276 acres of which the golf course  occupies less than half. The property has frontage on Route 4 that goes two-thirds of the way down Dodge Pond Hill. It encompasses all of the frontage on the Mingo Loop road, on the corner of Route 4 on the end closest to town, all the way  beyond the white farm house, (not including the white farmhouse, which was sold in order to buy the nine holes on the Country Club side) and a lot of the frontage on the other side of the road, all the way to what’s called Alpine way, when you make the turn to come into the course, past where the driving range is. The property includes all of the frontage on Proctor Rd. (with the exception of the white house, which is just off the corner of Route 4), up to Country Club Way. And then all the frontage of course on Country Club Way, all the way back down around to the Loop Road on the other side. So, there’s a lot of frontage.”

Just recently, the family closed a deal with The Rangeley Lakes Heritage Trust, who bought 101 acres. This part is the largest part of the Mingo Spring Bird Trail and where ninety-two species of birds have been identified.  This acreage is also excellent deer habitat and is part of the State Game Preserve.  The Trust now owns all of the Rte. 4 frontage, all of the Proctor Rd. frontage, and most of the Mingo Loop Road frontage.

Chodosh, “There are literally hundreds of people a year who use that trail, walking it thousands of times, collectively. I walk it as often as possible. There have been summers when I’ve walked it every day. And it’s a gift to the community. The Trust closed that deal just a week or two ago, and they now own it. So that’s a very positive thing. Next in line is work to put a conservation easement on the course itself so golf will be preserved in Rangeley forever. The easement will say that the space can only be golf or open space. Nothing else can happen on it. I think this is really meaningful to the Town of Rangeley, and to the people in this town, this community. It’s also meaningful to my family, and to me personally.”

There have been rumors the golf course itself was sold and Chodosh said that many people have come up to ask him if it was true.

Chodosh, “You know Rangeley is a rumor mill, and I can’t tell you how many people have come up to me to ask me who I sold the course to. ‘Oh, I heard you sold the golf course, who bought it?’ We haven’t sold the golf course.”

He assured me that he wants the Mingo Spring Golf Course to be around for as long as possible. He joked, even until the next Ice Age, and he doesn’t ever want to see houses on it. “For all intents and purposes, it’s permanent. This will fulfill the legacy that my parents left to us. The golf course will be protected.”

We spoke about the economic impact that businesses like Saddleback, and groups such as the Rangeley Lakes Snowmobile Club, and recreational activities like fishing and yes, golf, have on the town.

Chodosh, “It has been one of the missions of my life is to preserve Mingo, not just because of golf, but because it’s an absolutely beautiful piece of property and it will be ruined if a developer gets his hands on it. I’ve been a real estate developer in New York, so I know what’s possible. And trust me when I tell you that the property would accommodate 150 or more building lots, all of which would be special. We’re foregoing that because of our commitment to Rangeley, and to that place, and to seeing the property preserved.  It’s important to me personally and it’s important to my siblings as well. We’re all together on this.”

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