Rolley Hole Marbles
Rolley Hole is a three-hole variety of marbles unique to certain areas of the Tennessee Upper Cumberland region. The game combines elements of golf, croquet and billiards. The game is associated with Clay County, Tennessee, and Monroe County, Kentucky, but it has gained national, even international attention.
To learn more about the game, see photos and read stories from a number of publications, please click on the articles below.
The Historic Clay County Courthouse has created a Rolley Hole Museum in the courthouse building. Those who have artifacts or other materials they would like to donate or loan to the museum for display and educational purposes, please contact Thomas Waston, Historic Clay County Courthouse Curator, at [email protected] or 931-243-3464.
Bud Garrett’s Rolley Hole Marble Machine on Display
Historic Clay County Courthouse TN curator Thomas Watson is shown with workers from the Tennessee State Miseum as they deliver Bud Garrett’s marble making machine to the Rolley Hole Marble Museum earlier today. This piece of Clay County history is back home! Pictured...
Rolley Hole Museum Opens
The Rolley Hole Museum is now open for visitors. Housed in the two east-side rooms of the Historic Clay County Courthouse, the museum contains informational materials, photo albums, Rolley Hole Tournament posters, artifacts, marbles and audio-visual displays. The...
Eric Strong, Rolley Hole Marble Maker
Eric Strong, of Celina, Tennessee, is a second-generation marble maker and an experienced player in the Rolley Hole marble folk game tradition. Eric has been making marbles for nearly three decades. His father, the late Junior B. Strong, and his uncle, Malcolm, were...
Fulcher’s Rolley Hole Marbles
by Robert J. Fulcher In early spring the ground in Clay County, Tennessee is too wet to plow, and too wet to play marbles. In late fall the frosty nights are too cold for the game, and besides, tobacco is in need of stripping. But on warm, dry evenings between those...
Competition Posters
National Championship
This article is reprinted from The Tennessee Arts Commission. The Arts Commission has been a tremendous supporter of the National Rolley Hole Marbles Championship and Festival, providing funding and other support. The Arts Commission also provided funding for this...
American Way Article, Aug. 1, 2006
Read an article that appeared in American Way magazine in August 2006. To advance the pages click the arrow in the bottom left corner of the .pdf. [pdf-embedder...
What Does It Take to Be the Rolley Hole Champion?
Atlas Obscura writer MAGGIE GIGANDET published an article in the Nov. 23, 2021, issue that excellently depicts the Rolley Hole Championships. Included are numerous photos. Here's what Maggie wrote: "Cradling his marble, Kenzie Adams knelt in the dirt yard and...
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Dumas Walker’s Store
The Historical Marker Database In 1990, the Kentucky Headhunters, a Southern rock band from Edmonton, Kentucky, scored their second hit, "Dumas Walker,” on the country charts. "Dumas Walker” came from the Headhunters' No. 2 country album, Pickin' on Nashville, and...
Cherokee Marbles
Cherokee marbles (ᏗᎦᏓᏲᏍᏗ, digadayosdi), or five hole is a traditional game among the Cherokee people of the United States, in which players roll small stone balls between five shallow pits dug into a playing field. Today, the game is commonly played with billiard...
UCBJ Journal
Standing Stone State Park will host the National Rolley Hole Marbles Championship and Festival on Saturday, Sept. 17, 2016, drawing some of the country’s best players to Tennessee in what is known as the Super Bowl of marbles. In its 34th year, the event will include...
Rolley Hole Heaven
AN AGE-OLD GAME OF MARBLES IS STILL THE RAGE IN KENTUCKY AND TENNESSEE A line of pickup trucks and an oasis of light glimmering through the darkened trees told Bobby Fulcher that he had found the last surviving marbles yard in Tennessee. Making his way closer, Fulcher...
Marble Club Video
Spirit of Bluegrass
SPIRIT OF THE BLUEGRASS The Marble Champions of Monroe County
Grit
When a mountain shootout occurs in the neighboring counties of Clay in Tennessee and Monroe in Kentucky, women and children don’t run for shelter. Instead, they pull out folding chairs and cool drinks and settle in for a hot game of rolley hole. That’s when the smack...
Tennessee Home & Farm
Let the Good Times Roll at the Rolley Hole Marbles Championship
Dale Hollow Lake Chamber
The Clay County Partnership Chamber of Commerce is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting Clay County. Our purpose is to develop strategies and implement plans to stimulate the economic growth of Clay County. We aim to help the community prosper in all realms...
River of Song
In early spring the ground in Clay County, Tennessee is too wet to plow, and too wet to play marbles. in late fall the frosty nights are too cold for the game, and besides, tobacco is in need of stripping. But on warm, dry evenings between those seasons you will find...
Tennessee Encyclopedia
The area along the Kentucky-Tennessee border including Clay County, Tennessee, and Monroe County, Kentucky, maintains a remarkable marble-playing tradition focused on a game known locally as “rolley hole,” “three holes,” or simply “marbles.” [advanced_iframe...
Remembering Bud Garrett
Robert “Bud” Garrett died on November 24,1987. Perhaps appropriately, he suffered a heart attack during his third game of the folk marble game “rolley hole” the day before Thanksgiving. Rolley hole has been a tradition in Garrett’s home of Clay County,...
Photo of Bud Garrett Making Marbles
Bud Garrett of Free Hill, Tennessee, making marbles at the Rolley Hole Marbles National Championship in Hilham, Tennessee, Sept. 10, 1985. This event was organized by Bob Fulcher and took place at the Standing Stone State Park. -photos courtesy of Tennessee State...
Marble Maker & Player
Robert (Bud) Garrett – 1916-1987 Rolley hole, a marbles game involving teams, is regionally played in the Upper Cumberland River Valley. Garrett was a popularizer of the game and in the 1940’s he invented a marble-making machine. His marbles, while not always...
Rolley Hole
Rolley hole (or rolly hole as it is described in some sources) is a three-hole variety of marbles unique to certain areas of the Upper Cumberland region. The game combines elements of golf, croquet and billiards. The game is not played throughout the entire region....