(instrumental music)
- So these are the steps that went up to the
Tom Thumb miniature golf course.
(whimsical guitar music)
Garnet Carter grew up on Lookout Mountain.
- He was a visionary and an early entrepreneur
in Chattanooga, and he developed the Fairyland Club.
(whimsical guitar music)
- So you can imagine hitting a golf ball up on a
green, painted cottonseed hole surface,
and havin' a hole up there.
This is where Tom Thumb was.
Now it's the middle of a road.
What a man.
What an entrepreneur.
(guitar music fades out)
- One of America's greatest golf architects,
a man named Seth Raynor had been hired to build
this wonderful golf course on top of Lookout Mountain.
But he had a stroke and he passed away,
so the golf course construction was interrupted.
- So he conceived the idea to create a
miniature version of it.
(twangy guitar music)
- Miniature golf started in the latter 1800's,
and probably for the first 30 or 40 years,
it was played strictly with a skill base.
There were no obstacles to speak of.
In many cases they were played on dirt.
(mellow guitar music)
Frieda really wanted to create this fantasy fairyland
at the Fairyland Inn, so she came up with the name
Tom Thumb Miniature Golf.
Frieda really used the idea of themeing Tom Thumb
miniature golf with what is a tradition in Germany
of garden gnomes.
(acoustic guitar music)
- When Tom Thumb Golf came around,
they were the first to say, "Let's try and make it
"a little more fun, let's decorate the course,
"let's put some obstacles in the course
"that they actually will have to putt around."
So now that even though I'm limited in space,
I can make a more interesting game,
because now I can have something in the way
that I have to negotiate around,
as compared to just a straight putt in every course.
- Some of the obstacles that Garnet Carter used
were hollow logs, the existing rock formations
that are still at the Fairyland Club.
But all of those ideas were inspired by
Frieda Utermoehlen Carter, the love of Garnet Carter's life.
- They were a remarkable team.
I think that she inspired him to a great extent.
(acoustic guitar music)
- Once he built his golf course, he thought,
"This is so much fun, other people are gonna love it,"
and they did.
- This was so successful, that Mr. Carter franchised
the course.
(quirky instrumental music)
- Some of these miniature golf courses were put on
rooftops, some were put on vacant lots
in between skyscrapers in major cities.
- And because it has that wide ability
to hit all different ages, it's very conducive
for a family to go out there and play as a group,
even if none of 'em ever picked up regulation golf clubs.
- It was during World War II, my dad, my mother,
brother and I were given a two-week vacation by my dad.
We went to Fairyland Club.
I think it maybe cost 25 cents, and it had holes.
You got a golf club and a golf ball.
And my mother, who was far from being a sports addict,
played, good sport about it,
and my little brother could play.
We played enough, I don't remember whether
we even paid. (laughing)
- We are city of entrepreneurs and visionaries and creators.
We're a maker city.
- [Bill] I think Garnet Carter's legacy
is the entrepreneurial spirit of America.
- Even today, here we are 60 years later,
70 years later from when Mr. Carter
actually created Tom Thumb Golf,
we're one of the few that highly focus
on our miniature golf site on a themed version
miniature golf.
But that entrepreneurial spirit very much alive
in our company, and I think what Carter did
years ago with miniature golf was kind of the start
of that niche in the entertainment industry,
and we're very much a part of that today.
(guitar and chime music concludes)