Bowling Regions of North America

Abstract

The five indoor bowling games of the Anglo-American culture realm and French Canada—tenpins, fivepins, duckpins, candlepins and rubberband duckpins— all occupy specific regions. Tenpins is played everywhere except in the Canadian Maritimes. Fivepins is an exclusively Canadian game, strongest in western Canada. Candlepins is restricted to Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and parts of the Maritimes. Duckpins occupies two regions, one around Baltimore/Washington and the second in southern New England. Rubberband duckpins is the dominant game in Quebec and dying out in its region of origin around Pittsburgh. The four small-ball games developed in the late 19th and early 20th century as innovators in Worcester, Massachusetts (candlepins), Toronto (fivepins), Pittsburgh (rubberband duckpins) and an unknown location (duckpins) changed the equipment and rules of tenpins to find a less strenuous and technically more challenging game. All the games quickly won local converts and some succeeded in expanding their region of play as population moved and organizations were founded to spread the games. Today tenpins and fivepins dominate bowling in the United States and Canada, but in the East small-ball games still exist as a case of persistent regional variation within a national popular culture.