Waupaca Curling Club

About Waupaca Curling Club

Waupaca Curling Club: Curling on Franklin Street Since 1924

Waupaca Curling Club has been part of winter life in Waupaca, in central Wisconsin, since 1879, when Portage merchant H.W. Williams founded it and the first stones were thrown on the southeast shore of Mirror Lake. For decades the club had no permanent home, curling on the river and in garages, until 1924, when 40 members each put in $25 to build a two-sheet club on South Franklin Street, warmed by a wood stove.

The building grew with the club. In 1950 Ray Pinkerton oversaw the addition of two more sheets and a viewing room, the same year 14 charter members founded the women’s Waupaca Lochs. Artificial ice followed in 1957, a metal building and 64 Kays of Scotland granite stones in 1964, and a new clubhouse in 1998–99, ahead of the club hosting the 1999 Junior Nationals. Today it is a four-sheet dedicated club with a renovated locker room, bar and LED lighting.

League play fills the week, with an open league on Mondays, women on Tuesdays, men on Wednesdays and Thursdays and a casual morning league, plus Learn 2 Curl, open ice on Friday nights and bonspiels. Youth and school teams are coached by members such as Neil Wenberg, and the Curling in the Gym program that started here has gone national.