Cascades Gc

The Cascades Golf Course in Jackson, Michigan, opened in 1929 as the centerpiece of an ambitious public recreation vision funded by industrialist William Sparks. The William and Matilda Sparks Foundation, formed in 1929, set out to turn the land into a park and retreat featuring golf, lagoons, a canal, and the famous illuminated Cascades waterfall. Scottish-born architect Tom Bendelow, one of America's most prolific early course designers, laid out the eighteen-hole championship course. A striking Tudor-style clubhouse, now known as Cascades Manor, was completed in 1932 to serve the course. Set beside the Sparks park and its landmark man-made falls, the layout is long by traditional standards and threaded with water and mature scenery. Today it is owned and operated by Jackson County as a daily-fee public course, keeping Sparks's original gift of accessible, well-kept municipal golf alive for the community.