Summer in Dexter may bring the scent of barbecue on the grill or the sight of anglers casting for trout in Mill Creek. And every Wednesday at First Street Park, it has its own distinctive sound: metal clanging on metal, as the Dexter Ringers Horseshoe Club plays its season, as it has for thirty-seven years.

About fifty people play in the league, paying five dollars a night each. At the end of each season–this year’s ran through September 2–the proceeds are donated to charity.

It started in 1978 when Gary Klapperich, who had his welding shop in Dexter then, started a tournament behind his business. “It was where the AAA building [on Ann Arbor St.] is now, but we outgrew that space pretty quickly,” says Dexter resident Mark Amsdill, the man identified by other club members as the guy who knows everything about the Ringers. And he does.

“We talked to the Dexter Fire Department, and there was a lot of room behind that [building, where Mill Creek Park is now], so they let us put in pits and pitch back there. I think we were there about ten years.

“After that, the owner of the bowling alley and bar, currently The Alley on Baker Rd., put in some pits behind his business. A lot of us were patrons there anyhow, so we moved there, and that worked well until there was a rumor that the bar owner was thinking about expanding his business into that space,” Amsdill adds. Where to go next?

Enter Paul Cousins–former Dexter schoolteacher, restaurant owner, councilmember, and Ringers member. “The city owned some land at the end of Edison St. bordering the railroad tracks,” Cousins says. “It was just a place where the city dumped stuff, brush and things like that. We thought it might work for some horseshoe pits.”

It did. “Once we got the go-ahead, some of us had tractors and other equipment, and we started clearing stuff out and pushing dirt around,” Amsdill recalls. “At the time, Busch’s was building its new store, and Paul arranged for us to get about 110 yards of dirt from them, so we got the land leveled up. The guys from Cribley Drilling came down and dug us ten pits.”

That was eight years ago. First Street Park, at the foot of Edison St., is nestled against the woods. It has horseshoe pits, a few picnic tables, and a Porta-Potty during warm weather. There are twelve pits now, the last two added a couple of years ago as an Eagle Scout project completed by Steve Dootz. The Dexter Ringers Horseshoe Club had found its home.

Members are mostly from Dexter, Chelsea, Pinckney, or Jackson. “We put up a few flyers, but most people come to us by word of mouth,” Amsdill says. Each year, the group gives about $1,000 to charity. They previously donated to a local volunteer hospice organization, but since 2009 their cause has been a “Great Day to Be Alive,” which since that year has raised money for the chemotherapy center at St. Joseph Mercy Chelsea.

Remember Gary Klapperich who started the horseshoe group in Dexter? While being successfully treated for cancer at St. Joseph Mercy Ann Arbor, Gary kept his spirits up with the Travis Tritt tune “It’s a Great Day to Be Alive.” After his treatment, Klapperich, the Ann Arbor Fraternal Order of Eagles, and the Dexter American Legion organized the “Great Day to be Alive” to raise money to bring chemotherapy services to Chelsea. This year’s event was August 21-22 at the Ann Arbor Eagles Club.

For regular league play, teams of two, chosen at random, play six games each week. “It’s nice the way we do it. You get to know everyone in the club, because you’re always playing with different people,” says Barb Scott of Dexter, Ringers president for the last fifteen years. Trophies are awarded at an end-of-season banquet.

“We’ve got newbies coming, and people who have been pitching for thirty years,” Amsdill says. “We welcome everybody who wants to throw and are glad to help them learn how to do it. We always leave a couple sets of horseshoes at the park so folks can play or practice whenever they want.”

Cousins joined the club after he sold his restaurant, Cousins Heritage Inn. “I grew up pitching with my dad, who was excellent and pitched in tournaments. I finally had time to do it again,” he says. “And I knew some of the people in the club. Mark [Amsdill] was a student in my first class when I started teaching. That was the year John Kennedy was killed, and Mark was there when I had to tell the class what had happened. It was a day we both remember,” Cousins says

Amsdill says the game of horseshoes dates back to the Civil War and bored soldiers; some sources say it’s much older. Instead of actual shoes worn by horses, the Ringers use special horseshoes made just for the game. Each weighs about two-and-a-half pounds, and a pair costs between sixty and eighty dollars. Most people buy them online.

Scott has been pitching for at least twenty years. “When I started, it was something I could afford as a single mom raising three kids. I like it because I’ve gotten to meet a lot of people, and I’m pretty competitive!” Scott says. “And it’s also nice that my kids play now.”

Her son has joined the Ringers and is teaming up with his mom to pitch in an invitational winter league in Grass Lake. Though there have always been women in the Ringers, Scott likes to recruit more. They pitch from thirty feet rather than the standard forty feet.

Amsdill says that “just like anything, the more you play, the better you get.” And he enjoys the group. “We have a lot of interesting people in the club, and I believe we have enough trades represented that we could put up a building–carpenters, builders, electricians, refrigeration mechanics. We do have an alcohol permit, so if folks want an adult beverage, it’s OK.

“We’re not members of the national horseshoe pitching organization. They run by a different set of rules, like no talking while throwing. It’s pretty regimented. We’re not like that. We talk, we laugh a lot. We just want to play horseshoes and have some fun.”

The Dexter Ringers’ final event for this year will be a Masters Tournament September 26 at First Street Park with sixteen teams that have qualified during other tournaments held this summer.