When Jason Gleeson started making plans on building a horseshoe pit at Stiers Memorial Park in Rhineland in April, he had a mission of creating a facility that would help get the small town in southern Montgomery County more active.

“It gets people back to doing things as a community,” the longtime Rhineland resident said. “It gets them out of the house and get together on a weekend to do things instead of sitting in the house and not doing anything.”

The new horseshoe pit made its debut on May 10 as 18 people from all over Missouri competed in a tournament in which half of the money goes to the winner and the rest goes to the Rhineland Area Volunteer Fire Department.

The event occurred during the fire department’s 50th anniversary party that was also held at the park and a ribbon-cutting ceremony to commemorate the new playground.

Gleeson worked on the project every day for three weeks and finished it the day before the tournament. He said there was nothing but dirt in the area before he started working on the pit.

“We had some pits here, but when they got grant money to do this (playground), they tore my pits out,” Gleeson said. “There wasn’t enough money to build the pits back, so (the village said) if you want pits, you’re going to have to build them. So the park paid for the concrete and I did all of the work. I found some people donating some sod and I got a couple of other guys to help. In three weeks, we had it done and ready for this tournament.”

Gleeson installed artificial turf at the pit. Some of the turf came from the football field at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

“A farmer got it and stored it up in his farm,” Gleeson said. “Then, he donated some of it, so we put it down.”

By installing the new pit, Gleeson is continuing a sport that has been popular in the Rhineland area for years.

“Horseshoes is a sport that is kind of dying out because you have people who throw bags and you have people who throw washers,” Gleeson said. “Horseshoes is the first thing that ever comes from way, way back. People had horseshoes from the shoes from their horses left around. So they threw horseshoes. But since then, a lot of people throw washers and bags. So there’s not as many young people throwing horseshoes anymore. There are a lot of older people here throwing horseshoes.”

Before building the horseshoe pit, Gleeson had plenty of experience of horseshoe throwing.

“I’ve thrown in other pits,” Gleeson said. “I’ve thrown around Jefferson City, Owensville and Rosebud, so I knew what to do or what not to do.”

The horseshoe facility is available to the public except for tournaments. Call Gleeson at 573-291-0937 for more information.