Bowling Ball Factory Traditional Cache

Most people don't realize that prior to 1960, every bowling ball in the world was black, that is until a man from Ephrata, Washington started messing around with colored resin and produced the world's first colored bowling ball.  Using washing machine parts, he invented a way to cast and polish a brightly colored and marbleized ball in one piece that also eliminated the seam that was previously found on balls that were cast in two halves and then glued together.  He gave a presentation to a group of local investors including Lowell Moore, Howard Nessen and Bill Wolford, among others and convinced them to partner with him even though he only had one ball to show them at the time.  The company "Columbia 300" was born and before they knew it, they were making balls as fast as they could, selling them worldwide.  

They found a suitable location for the factory out at the old abandoned WWII airbase at the edge of town and adapted what is best remembered as part of the army hospital building into their factory.  

It didn't take long for this new bowling phenomenon to catch the eye of none other than the kingpins of bowling...... Brunswick, who came out with their version of the brightly colored ball.  Luckily, for this group of young entrepreneur, they held the patent on the new design so they pooled all their resources to defend themselves against the giants of Brunswick.

Meanwhile, with the balls selling for an average retail price of $17.95 each, sales had grown to $1,500,000 by 1963 and Columbia 300 was the ball of choice for most bowlers. In 1964, the courts decision on the patent infringement was in favor of the Ephrata group but the costly legal defense had the company strapped so the stockholders decided to sell the company's shares to investors from San Antonio Texas.  Somewhere around this time, the Ephrata factory mysteriously burned to the ground and everything was lost.  The sale of the company, consisting mostly of a patent and a good reputation, went through as planed but the entire operation was moved to San Antonio where Columbia 300 still manufactures these brightly colored spheres to this day.  

This Geocache is meant to celebrate the historical significance of a silly innovation that revolutionized the world of fun and entertainment.  It has been roughly 50 years (as of the date of this posting) since these events took place in this location. The men and women who helped change the face of bowling are fading from our lives and their story is being lost with them. It is my hope that this Geocche serves as a reminder of how a little town called Ephrata took a little thing like the bowling ball and changed it in such a big way.  Everyone has seen or used the pretty marbleized ball at the local bowling alley without really knowing anything about it...... well now you do.