Thanks to Tom Wraight, Vicky Acaster and Max Heidecker the mystery of the Tanner mansion is pretty much solved.
Tanner built a large two storey house in what is known as “Gumbo Flats” two miles south of Federal. The land there is very poor farming land causing Tanner (who was thought to have been a lumberman) to give up and leave.
Jack Munson tried it for a while, then the Walker family spent about two years there before abandoning it. The house stood empty for a few years.
Likely the municipality took it for back taxes and sold it to Mr. Ryan. Sometime in the ’40’s he got moving wheels from Tom Embree of Castor.
He loaded the house on them and Carl Ekman and Frank Polson pulled it with their tractors to its new location 1 1/2 miles south and three miles west, (NW 34-35-12). The Malaka clan grew up there and the Acaster family bought it in 1985 with Vicky’s son, Richard now living in the ‘mansion’. Thanks so much for the prompt response.
Sports has always been a big part of the communities in the area. The participants would give their all and everyone else would cheer or “boost” them on.
When a team was playing a game in a town further away, for example Stettler, they would arrange for a special train to take them there, and they would fill a few cars with “boosters”.
You didn’t have to win a championship to get cheered, any and all achievements would be cheered and become the talk of the towns. Mr. Gerhart’s achievement made headlines on the front page.
April 14, 1932
Makes First
Hole-in-One on Coronation Course
“Mr. C. E. Gerhart is now the most distinguished golfer in the Coronation club, he made a hole-in-one during a four-ball match last weekend.
A perfect mid-iron shot on the ninth sunk the pill in a 202 yard hole, for the first hole-in-one on the Coronation course during a match.
Several spectators were at the hole at the time and witnessed the ball trickle in, and immediately cried out the good news to those who were driving off at the tee.
This was Mr. Gerhart’s first round this season, and at a time when the slough, which is dubbed “a mental hazard is at its full.”
They seemed to feel that Mr. Gerhart had given them all a wonderful start to the season. I’ve come across more hole-in-ones recently, but I’ll save them for the book.

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