Willmar Curling of Willmar, Minnesota

The Willmar Curling Club is a non-profit organization dedicated to the sport of curling. We legally formed in the spring of 2005 and received our 501C(3) federal tax status in the summer of 2008. The club has an active Board of Directors with an aggressive approach to fundraising and program development. We are also very progressive and innovative in the art of converting arena ice into curling ice and back again, and have very high standards terms of equipment and ice making for arena curling.

What do we do?

In addition to adult leagues (photos) we also help organize and facilitate several other curling programs in the community including; high school P.E., junior curling (photos), Saturday “Little Rocks” curling, and Community Ed and Rec Open Curling. We staff these events and provide the necessary instruction and coaching. We are also working with Ridgewater College to get some college curling going.

We actively promote curling locally as well as regionally. Every year our season begins with an open house and ends with a banquet; during the season we host at least two bonspiels. Whenever possible, club members and equipment help with open houses in surrounding communities working on getting curling started; some of these include Alexandria, Brainerd, Litchfield, Walker and Buffalo; of which Alexandria, Walker and Brainerd now have active curling clubs.

West Central Minnesota Curling History

Before the Willmar Curling Club, the West Central region of Minnesota had been relatively void of curling. There was however a small band of Willmar curling fans in the late 50’s that would drive out to Montevideo to go curling, and that lead to a lost curling era of about 20 years from the late 50’s to the mid 70’s and the areas of Montevideo and Clarkfield Minnesota. Research is on-going and we hope to dig up news articles, pictures, and artifacts of this seemingly forgotten era of Minnesota curling history. If you know anything about this, or know someone that might know something about this, please email the club with the subject line “Curling History” and tell us about it.

For the most part however, the 400+ year old sport has been mostly non-existent in Willmar and the surrounding area. Though efforts were being made in the Willmar area as early as 2002, a shortage of indoor ice and a lack of resources to make ice dampened the efforts. In summer of 2004 the city of Willmar installed an ice making system in the Blue Line building; that winter a “rag-tag” curling league was organized and the Willmar Curling Club was born.