Welcome to the Wildwood Inn!
Owned and operated by Twain Harte residents Vic, Aleta, Samantha and Nicholas Utterback. (And some times the big kids help-thanks Jed & Jessa.) We have been Twain Harte residents since 1997 and small business owners since 1990. Originally from Ketchikan, Alaska, we moved to Twain Harte in 1997 when we purchased a local restaurant with our friends Jamie and Chuck Kiel. After operating the restaurant for almost six years, we had an opportunity to sell. Restaurants are a lot of fun, but mostly, alot of work. So we took that opportunity and sold in October of 2002.
Vic has been a fisherman in Southeast Alaska since the early 1980's and we took some time and returned to Alaska and went fishing for the summer. But the kids home was now Twain Harte, so back we came. By chance we heard the Wildwood might be for sale, and never being ones for a "real job", we decided to pursue our next job . . . owning an Inn.
We purchased the Wildwood three years ago and took over operations April 7, 2005. The Inn had never been updated since its inception in 1984. We are located on the property that most long time Twain Harte residents and those who have been visiting for the past several years, use to know as the "roller skating rink". Many guests have very fond memories of those days and share them with us when they visit.
Both newspaper prints courtesy of Bruce Sundy, one of the original owners of The Wildwood Inn.
From the very first day we have been renovating and refurbishing the entire inn. We started with the front office and living quarters located next to the office. New floors, paint and appliances were all completed in the first few weeks of ownership.
Over the next three years we have completely renovated all of the guestrooms. First cleaned and painted the entire rooms, replaced the linoleum and carpet, all of the linen including sheets, pillows and pillowcases, blankets, spreads, drapes and upgraded the amenities.
We now have log furniture and lamps in all of the rooms. Vic harvested trees from a local tree farm and built all of the new lamps, picture and mirror frames. Our new artwork is by local artist Brad Burns. The rooms are really beautiful.
We have a few more things to complete before the entire project is done. New sinks and faucets have been replaced in the rooms that had to be done, and the rest will go in through the next six months, along with hair dryers and irons (we do have them in the office should you need one).
We are planning on adding wireless internet to the guestrooms for those of you that can't go on vacation without your laptop and for our business guests. We do have faxing service available free of charge, not over 10 pages please)
That is what we have been busy working on for the past two years. So, if you haven't been to the Wildwood Inn lately, please come by. We would love to show you our rooms.
Vic, Aleta, Samantha and Nicholas