If you’ve driven southbound on SR-36 through Erda, you might have noticed a new sign welcoming you into the community just south of Church Road.
The large, stone sign is engraved with the words, “Welcome to Erda est. 1852” and a picture of the landmark barn on the property owned by the family of the late and former Tooele County Commissioner Bruce Clegg. Fittingly, the sign sits just feet away from the barn immortalized on the monument.
While the sign was just installed last weekend, it took a decade, the effort of two prospective Eagle Scouts and overcoming various hurdles along the way.
The final installation of the Erda rock was completed by Connor Clark, a senior at Stansbury High School, who managed to complete the project before his 18th birthday later this month. Once a scout turns 18, they are no longer eligible to be an Eagle Scout.
Before it was Connor’s project, however, Alix Court hoped to get the monument installed to welcome travelers into his community. Court’s efforts to get the Erda welcome sign in place began 10 years ago and were eventually unsuccessful after two years of work.
Court organized a fundraising dinner during the 2006 Erda Days to cover the costs of engraving the 8-foot by 5-foot monument. Landscape Construction Supply in Tooele completed the work on the rock, but Court ran into a difficult situation when finding it a home.
According to a Transcript Bulletin story from 2008, Court approached a developer about placing the sign at the intersection of Bates Canyon Road and SR-36. A verbal agreement to locate the monument fell apart, however, when a legal agreement wasn’t clear enough about who would be responsible for moving it, if necessary, or where it would be located.
The sign eventually found a home at Green Box Recycling in Tooele, according to Connor’s parents, Sam and Pyper Clark.
Pyper Clark said her son saw the Erda sign during a trip to Green Box Recycling and Connor told her he wanted to put it in for his Eagle Scout project. When Connor made that decision official, they approached the recycling business about purchasing the sign and Green Box Recycling donated the sign, which had been paid for by Court’s efforts.
“They were happy to be done with it,” Pyper Clark said.
Finding a location for the welcome sign was still a challenge for Connor, however, as state and local governments were resistant to placing the large stone sign too close to the roadway. Pyper Clark said no agency wanted to take on the liability of putting the monument on public land.
Merna Dalton, president of the Tooele Valley Daughters of Utah Pioneers, said her organization also made efforts to find a home for the welcome sign but ran into similar roadblocks. After an unsuccessful presentation before the Tooele County Commission a couple years ago, Dalton said Clegg told her they could put the sign on his property that abuts SR-36.
“I just think that was a really nice gesture by him,” Dalton said.
With a location finally set and the engraved rock in their possession, the process to get the engraved welcome sign in place finally had momentum again after years of inactivity. To complete the project, Connor Clark had to dig a foundation and install the cement base at the selected site, which is along the road but set back away from it.
The project, which took nearly two years for Connor to complete, finally reached completion this past weekend to welcome commuters home. After a decade of work, Erda finally has a welcome sign similar to those that mark Lake Point, Stockton, Stansbury Park and other communities in the county.
Dalton said the DUP is attempting to organize a dedication ceremony for the welcome sign in the coming weeks. She said Connor was able to “get something done that we’ve wanted to see happen for a long time.”