Qualla: Hoberg's Resort: Where Big Bands Played the Pines https://qualla.com/hoberg-s-resort en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:11 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/9/q/b/s/hoberg-s-resort-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Hoberg's Resort: Where Big Bands Played the Pines https://qualla.com/hoberg-s-resort Hoberg's Resort: Where Big Bands Played the Pines: Introduction https://qualla.com/hoberg-s-resort/ Photo credit Nzeemin, CC BY-SA 3.0. It started with Matilda Hoberg's cooking. In 1894, travelers passing through the pine-covered ridges of Lake County stopped at the Hoberg ranch to rest their horses, and Matilda fed them. That simple hospitality -- meals at a farmhouse 3,000 feet above the valleys -- became room and board at seven dollars a week, which became California's largest privately owned resort, which became a ruin. The arc took just over a century. By the time the Valley Fire swept through in September 2015, only the foundations and chimneys of the main building survived to mark where Tommy Dorsey once played trombone and Clark Gable once sipped cocktails under the ponderosa pines.

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]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/q/b/s/hoberg-s-resort-wp/9qbs-hobergs-resort-where-big-bands-played-the-pines-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Hoberg's Resort: Where Big Bands Played the Pines: From Westphalia to the Mayacamas https://qualla.com/hoberg-s-resort/ Photo credit Nzeemin, CC BY-SA 3.0. Gustav Hoberg left Westphalia, Germany, in 1860 at the age of fifteen. His future wife, Matilda Slotzenwall, crossed the Atlantic from Schleswig-Holstein a few years later. They married in Chicago in 1871, moved to Wisconsin, and in 1885 brought their four children to settle on 1...

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]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/q/b/s/hoberg-s-resort-wp/9qbs-hobergs-resort-where-big-bands-played-the-pines-from-westphalia-to-the-mayacamas.mp3 0:06 2 full Hoberg's Resort: Where Big Bands Played the Pines: The Grandsons Take the Stage https://qualla.com/hoberg-s-resort/ Photo credit Nzeemin, CC BY-SA 3.0. In 1934, George Hoberg and his brothers Paul and Frank took the reins from their parents and began transforming the family property into something far grander. They added a large dining hall, a general store, and a tiled swimming pool. The timing was deliberate: the 1930s brought...

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]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/q/b/s/hoberg-s-resort-wp/9qbs-hobergs-resort-where-big-bands-played-the-pines-the-grandsons-take-the-stage.mp3 0:06 3 full Hoberg's Resort: Where Big Bands Played the Pines: Music Drifting Through the Pines https://qualla.com/hoberg-s-resort/ Photo credit Nzeemin, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Pine Bowl dance floor had no roof. That was the point. On warm summer evenings, big band music drifted out through the surrounding forest, filling the resort grounds with sound that mixed with cricket song and pine-scented air. Sal Carson and his orchestra began a long reside...

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]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/q/b/s/hoberg-s-resort-wp/9qbs-hobergs-resort-where-big-bands-played-the-pines-music-drifting-through-the-pines.mp3 0:06 4 full Hoberg's Resort: Where Big Bands Played the Pines: The Slow Fade https://qualla.com/hoberg-s-resort/ Photo credit Nzeemin, CC BY-SA 3.0. The 1960s were unkind to Lake County resorts. Vacationers discovered jet travel and destinations that offered more than mountain air and dancing. Conventions migrated to purpose-built facilities in cities. Business at Hoberg's declined steadily. George Hoberg died in 1970, and th...

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]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/q/b/s/hoberg-s-resort-wp/9qbs-hobergs-resort-where-big-bands-played-the-pines-the-slow-fade.mp3 0:06 5 full Hoberg's Resort: Where Big Bands Played the Pines: What the Fire Left Behind https://qualla.com/hoberg-s-resort/ Photo credit Nzeemin, CC BY-SA 3.0. That revival never came. On September 12, 2015, the Valley Fire tore through Lake County with extraordinary speed, ultimately burning over 76,000 acres. The old Hoberg's resort building -- the structure that had hosted a thousand dinner guests and sheltered Hollywood celebrities ...

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]]> Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/q/b/s/hoberg-s-resort-wp/9qbs-hobergs-resort-where-big-bands-played-the-pines-what-the-fire-left-behind.mp3 0:06 6 full