Kreutzer Farmstead: From Dairy Farm To Disc Golf

Disc golf and gardening may be the primary recreational uses for the Kreutzer Farmstead on the western edge of Lake in the Hills.

The Lake in the Hills Village Board in late April approved a revised master plan for the 8.98-acre park, 5962 Grafton Farm Drive.

Original plans for the former dairy farm included an amphitheater, a playground, bike path, kiosk and grill, said Parks and Recreation Director Trudy Wakeman.

The Village Board voted to eliminate those amenities and to add the disc golf course, garden plots, parking lot, shelter and sledding hill. The Rotary Club of Lake in the Hills recently approached the village and offered to take the reins on the disc golf project.

“The rotary is going to work with a disc golf designer to see how a disc golf course would work on the site,” Wakeman said.  “We dropped the amphitheater because there is no electricity running to the site. And we talked about having the playground and walking paths, but we decided this is going to be a very passive park that will be used pretty much for disc golf.”

Park and recreation officials don’t want to design a course that has walking trails intersecting it – a feature at two local disc golf courses – where Wakeman said non-golfers can be hit by unsuspected soaring discs.

Disc golf is played with heavier, Frisbee-like discs, and golfers aim for baskets or targets instead of holes. Like golf, the players aspire to make the fewest throws per basket. 

Last year, the village opened 20 gardening plots for people wanting to plant vegetable or flower gardens. Summer rental fees for the plots are $20 for residents and $30 for nonresidents.

All plots are rented, and the village will start a waiting list, if needed, Wakeman said.

“If we get more interest, we can definitely add more plots,” she said.

Despite cool weather, some gardeners already have begun fencing and planting lettuce and tomato seedlings. The village has provided a rain barrel for gardeners to water their crops.

Last week Caroline Wolfe, of Lake in the Hills, was hoeing the hard, dry dirt in her two plots. On one, she plans to plant watermelon seeds, and on the other, she and her children will plant vegetables, she said.

“I’m growing melons that will be used for the Melon Propellin’ contest at the Summer Sunset Festival (Sept. 2 to 4),” Wolfe said. “We need small melons for the catapults people build.”

To read more about the village's plan for a sledding hill on the Kreutzer Farmstead, visit this Lake in the Hills Patch article.