By Lee Torliatt

 

George Washington may never have slept here, but Luther Burbank definitely took a snooze or two in Lake County.

The mineral springs of Lake County became an attraction for vacationers from Sonoma County and elsewhere as early as the 1860s and the fun continued well into the 1950s.

 

RESORTS OF LAKE COUNTY By Donna Hoberg, Arcadia Press 128 pages,$19.99

One of the most popular places was Hoberg's, founded by Gustav and Mathilde Hoberg late in the 19th century. Donna Hoberg, a descendant, does a good job of mixing pictures and text to show how the many resorts of the area developed. She notes that Burbank, Santa Rosa's noted plant wizard, got away from the hustle and bustle of Sonoma County several times in the 1920s, staying in what was known as the Spring cabin with his wife and niece. 

 

Things did not always go well for resorts at the Lake. The spacious Witter Hotel, built for $250,000 in 1906, suffered financial tremors after the San Francisco earthquake and was sold for $15,000 ten years later. Shades of our current real estate shakes. 

 

Hoberg's, a destination for many residents of Sonoma County and the greater Bay Area, fared better. Governor Earl Warren, movie star Lee Carrillo and World War II hero Hap Arnold of Sonoma joined in the fun. Name bandleaders included Freddy Martin, Xavier Cugat and Tommy Dorsey; singer Tennessee Ernie Ford dropped by to sing "Sixteen Tons" and play a round of golf or two. Sal Carson and his orchestra regularly provided dancing under the stars starting in 1945.

 

Ozzie Coulthart, with frequent blasts from his trumpet, is remembered as being the "resort character," acting as a combination emcee and recreation director in the 1950s.

 

(Torliatt is editor of the Sonoma County Historian, the quarterly journal of the Sonoma County Historical Society.)