Emery County Archives is having an open house on Thursday and Friday Oct. 28-29 from 12 noon to 5 p.m. Dottie Grimes is the Archives director, she said, “We will have refreshments and displays to show what collections we have, in hopes that we will generate more collections. The archives is located upstairs of the Old Courthouse on Main Street in Castle Dale.
“We have a prom dress and well worn shoes from the Depression. The shoes illustrate how difficult times were. These must have been her only dress shoes for years. An Icelandic sweater knitted and worn by one of the Icelanders who settled in Cleveland; a missionary suitcase filled with books and pamphlets and journals of a mission to Denmark in 1913; a stereoscope with dozens of 3-D cards open to the public for viewing; old Emery County Bank display with a section of the teller cage; Shawn Bradley’s professional basketball jerseys; Emery County Progress books of newspapers from 1900; Articles of Incorporation of canal companies, churches, clubs, etc.; and much, much more. We will have the microfilm reader set up ready to search through town, school, or cemetery records and a laptop scrolling through the hundreds of photographs housed in the Archives,” said Grimes.
There will also be several books for sale at the open house. Books containing history and information about Emery County. The book, Images of America: The San Rafael Swell by Dottie Grimes and the Historical Society will be on sale for $15; Emery County History by Edward Geary will be on sale for $10. Cowboy Poetry from the San Rafael books for $5. Castle Valley: Our Towns, Our Deserts, Our Mountains booklet for $3.
Grimes said, “Come take a tour of the Emery County Archives with files drawers filled with historic information, personal histories, and boxes filled with documented historic collections donated by residents and non residents of Emery County, and a library filled with old books and newspapers.
Emery County Archives open house
"This picture of the Emery County Courthouse after it was built in1940 is just one of many historic photos at the archives. It is now known as The Old Courthouse since the Courthouse, County Attorney's Office and Sheriff's Office moved to their new location."