Historical Society learns history of Wilberg Resort

By Phil Fauver Staff writer

In March the Emery County Historical Society members and friends were excited to learn about Emery County’s famous Wilberg Resort.
President Susanne Anderson welcomed everyone to an interesting evening. She introduced the Little Ladies from New York City who were going to sing a song and she introduced the former Director of the Emery County Archives Dottie Grimes who would relate the history of the Wilberg Resort.
Frances Swasey was then given the opportunity to announce the October meeting titled: “Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.” The October Historical Society Meeting will feature family folklore and tall tales of Emery County. We are looking for storytellers to participate. If you have a story (true or maybe not quite true) you would like to share, please contact Frances Swasey at 435-687-5080 or frances@etv.net.
Colorfully costumed Amanda Bennett and Bernice Payne with the stage name of The Little Ladies from New York City entertained this large group of history buffs with the Fanny Brice song “Second Hand Rose.” The audience indicated the performance was outstanding and asked for more.
Dottie Grimes began by pointing out that among all the bare hills along Highway 10 there is one hill four miles North of Castle Dale that stands out more than the others because it has groves of trees on it. She said, when I was a little girl and would come with my dad to Emery County my mother would tell me about visiting the Wilberg Resort with her two sisters while growing up in Huntington. As they drove past the hill of trees her mother would point to the hill and say there used to be a resort there, called the Wilberg Resort. They had a swimming pool, a dance floor, and you could go swimming, boating and dancing there. The large lake was used in the winter for ice-skating and for cutting out blocks of ice and storing them in an icehouse for use in the summer to make things cold. The Wilberg’s also used the lake on the hill to supply water for the crops.
Grimes along with other officers of the Historical Society Board were given the opportunity, a few years ago, to view and take photos of the remains of the Wilberg Resort. This resort is located on the private property of the Wilberg farm four miles North of Castle Dale Utah. Grimes used a slide show to display the pictures taken at that time.
Many of the older people in Emery County remembered the Wilberg Resort and were excited to talk about it. One Emery County woman remembered going there to her first dance when she was 16. She said I never missed a dance until I was married. A father of one of the girls would load his car with some of the local girls and take them to the dance at the resort. They could always find a ride home. She said it was so much fun to go to Wilberg’s. The resort had the music of an orchestra to dance to in the open-air pavilion. The dances were the highlight of everyone’s week. People would come from as far away as Salt Lake to the dances. Several orchestras played there over the years. It was reported that the sound system was loud enough to be heard in Castle Dale.
The Wilberg Resort had a zoo with animals such as deer, raccoons, coyotes, wolves, mountain lion, a bear and lots of foxes. Carl Wilberg raised foxes for the fur.
Carl Wilberg was born in 1862 in Norway and moved to Emery County, where he married Estelle Johansen and they lived in Castle Dale. Carl and his wife had eight children. When the first log cabin school was built in Castle Dale Carl became the schoolteacher. He is recorded as the first landowner in Castle Dale. He was the second county clerk, which included Carbon and Emery counties. Carl was the Director of the Cottonwood Creek Consolidated Irrigation Company in 1926. He became the Emery County Game Warden in 1920.
He built a bread store and he became a doctor giving treatment and setting broken bones. He at one time owned a sawmill. He became the owner of a coal mine when the owner of the mine gave the mine to Carl Wilberg to pay an outstanding debt. Carl’s children helped in all of these enterprises.
Carl at one time operated a grocery store and a meat market but Carl preferred ranching and sold out his store and bought a ridge of land North of Castle Dale. On his ranch Carl raised top quality Hereford cattle and forage crops for their feed.
He made a 15-acre pond on top of that hill and planted groves of trees around it. During the summer the lake was used for boating and in the winter you could ice skate on the pond. Carl was considered one of the best ranchers around and agriculture experts would come to learn from him. He had so many visitors that he made a walking tour through his property.
The Wilberg Resort created and built by Carl Wilberg and his family opened July 3rd 1929. They then operated the resort from Memorial Day to Labor Day until the beginning of the Second World War in 1941.
This Wilberg property located near the road between Huntington and Castle Dale was once a popular stopping off place for rest and refreshment.
Grimes displayed a hand drawn map of the Wilberg Resort illustrating where the buildings, the lake, the dance floor, the silo, the picnic area, the bandstand, the merry go round flying swing, the upper grove swimming pool and many other things at this resort were located.
From the photos shown by Grimes it is understood that very little remains of this once popular resort.