Utah Lake Resorts

Utah Lake had a shoreline of pleasure grounds before the automobile scattered them. Drawn by the freshwater and sandy beaches, promoters ringed the lake with resorts offering dancing, boating, swimming, and picnics: Woodbury Park at Pleasant Grove in 1880, Provo's Old Lake in 1883, Geneva at Orem, Lincoln Beach, American Fork, Murdock at Lehi — a new one nearly every year. Oldest of all was Saratoga, built at a warm spring west of Lehi in the late 1860s and still drawing swimmers a century later. The lake was the valley's summer playground.

What the plaque says

Settlers of the Utah Lake area, attracted by its sandy beaches, built resorts which provided dancing, boating, swimming and picnicking. The earliest sites and their proprietors were “Woodbury Park” Pleasant Grove 1880, B.W. Driggs Jr., “Old Lake”, first called “Snail Island”, Provo 1883, Don H. Corry and R.H. Dodd; “Geneva”, Orem 1888, John Dallin; “Lincoln Beach“, 1892, John Hallett; “American Fork”, 1892, Chas. Roberts & Samuel Dean; “Murdock”, Lehi 1894, George Murdock. “Saratoga”, a warm spring resort near the lake west of Lehi was built in the late 1860’s by John Beck, and is still in operation in 1970.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Bridal Veil Falls — 10 mi
  A dramatic double waterfall cascading 607 feet into Provo Canyon
• Thanksgiving Point — 11 mi
  A massive complex with dinosaur bones, gardens, and a curiosity museum
• Lehi Roller Mills — 12 mi
  The flour mill from the movie Footloose
• Aspen Grove — 13 mi
  The mountain-base trailhead for Mount Timpanogos and Stewart Falls

More markers nearby

• Fort Utah — 2.0 mi
• Pioneer Cemetery — 3.2 mi
• Settlement of Provo — 3.4 mi
• Utah Lake Fishing Industry — 3.4 mi