TAHOE • STORIES
Eccentrics
Lake Tahoe
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By Mark McLaughlin
Dating back to the 1860s, Lake Tahoe has attracted unique and unusual characters, independent thinkers and entrepreneurs. Like today, some made a living by providing services for residents or tourists; others invested their wealth in Tahoe to build estates and summer resorts, often as an escape from the city. A special few who had little money, left their legacy in colorful quotes and remarkable stories.
Baldwin christened his hotel the “Tallac House” for the 9,785-foot mountain to the southwest. Tallac is the Washoe word for “Great Mountain.” Baldwin’s new resort soon became the pride of Tahoe.
ELIAS “LUCKY” BALDWIN Elias “Lucky” Baldwin lived a life of risk and adventure and left a scandalous trail of marriages, divorces and affairs in his wake. One biographer called him a “Comstock plunger and glamorous libertine, who loved most, after a sharp trade, to squeeze three girls at once.” At Lake Tahoe, he is best remembered for the legendary Tallac Hotel that he operated near South Lake Tahoe in the late 1800s. Baldwin’s legacy lives on today at the Tallac Historic Site: a stretch of century-old, beachfront estates near Baldwin Beach that is free and open to the public for bike rides, strolls and swimming, just three miles south of Emerald Bay. Baldwin’s infatuation with Lake Tahoe began in the summer of 1879, when he visited a hostelry near Emerald Bay owned by Ephraim “Yank” Clements. The demand for tunnel supports for Comstock mines had taken a terrible toll on the majestic Sugar Pine forest that once thrived in the Tahoe Basin, but here the trees still stood tall. The next year Lucky bought Yank’s 2,000 acres that included one mile of lakefront property and a hotel, saloon, and general store. Baldwin announced; “My land acquisition will save this vast forest from the beauty-destroying ax of the woodsman so that it may be admired by generations to come.” Ironically, Baldwin’s moniker “Lucky” came from a windfall of money realized from his investments in those very same Comstock mining operations that had decimated the Tahoe Basin. Back in 1866, Baldwin’s stock in a Nevada mine had soared, leaving him millions in profit overnight and the nickname “Lucky” was his for life.
Baldwin’s womanizing escapades are legend. He married five times, had countless affairs and illegitimate children, and fought numerous breach-of-promise and seduction suits. Two paramours attempted to shoot him, including his much-younger cousin Veronica Baldwin after he allegedly assaulted her and then terminated her employment at his San Francisco hotel. Baldwin always claimed, “My public reputation is such that every woman who comes near me must have been warned in advance.” Despite Baldwin’s unsavory personal traits, lovers of Lake Tahoe owe him a debt of gratitude for giving us beautiful Baldwin Beach and protecting old growth forest. HANK MONK During the early days of Tahoe, stagecoach driver Hank Monk was as well known for his drinking ability as his driving skills. Despite his reputation, Monk was the most famous of all the “whips” working for Wells Fargo, the preeminent banking entity in San Francisco. Monk was skilled, courageous and sharp-tongued. Born in New York in 1826, Henry J. Monk came west in the California gold rush to become a stagecoach driver. After the 1859 silver discovery in Virginia City (Nevada), Monk began driving a coach from Placerville to the Comstock over a crude road south of Lake Tahoe.
Passengers marveled at how Monk handled the reins with finesse as he guided his team of horses across rugged Sierra passes. For years as a side job he took summer tourists up to Lake Tahoe, but they were as interested in hearing Monk’s tall tales as seeing Big Blue. Always meticulously dressed, he wore a wide-brimmed felt hat, yellow driving gloves, a frock coat and carried a silver-handled whip. Monk’s level of imbibing stood out in an era when many men consumed alcohol before breakfast and then drank regularly for the rest of the day. Remembered as a man who could drive when he couldn’t walk, he was sometimes carried from the saloon to the waiting coach to resume his run. The phrase “to drink like Hank Monk” still survives in Virginia City saloons. CAPTAIN DICK BARTER Towering above shattered cliffs of granite and glacial debris in Desolation Wilderness, southwest of Emerald Bay, looms Dick’s Peak, elevation 9,974 feet, standing stoic and solitary. The obdurate mountain is a fitting monument to Captain Richard Barter, a man whose remarkable feats of survival have withstood the test of time. A retired British seaman, Dick Barter shipped into Tahoe to caretake a summer retreat built at Emerald Bay in 1862. Barter’s solitary life there was full of hardship and danger, especially in winter, but for 12 years he lived the life of a recluse. Possessed of a fatalistic spirituality, Barter expected death to come by drowning, avalanche, or grizzly bear attack. Despite his eccentric lifestyle, the venerable sailor gained a reputation as an easy going old salt who enjoyed the taste of bourbon whiskey. If Barter craved drink and conversation during the snowbound winter, he rowed his boat to the saloons in Tahoe City. In January 1870, a sudden wind gust upset his row boat two miles off Sugar Pine point. He struggled frantically in the cold water, but managed to get back in the boat. It was intensely cold and deadly hypothermia was setting in, but Barter furiously rowed against the biting wind. Half-frozen, he rowed into Emerald Bay at daybreak, but his ordeal was far from over. He suffered severe frostbite in his feet and couldn’t walk so he tied pillows to his knees to get about. While he
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tram to a proposed ski resort above Incline Village never made it past the drawing board. Whittell then built the quirky Thunderbird Lodge, a 3-story French chateau that overlooks the lake’s famed blue water. He also hired legendary marine architect John Hacker to design a sleek yacht he named Thunderbird.
Captain Dick Barter and his dog recovered, he crafted a 7-foot model of a man-o’-war steam frigate. When he could walk again, he built a 4-ton sailboat that weighed 8,000 pounds. Later that summer, a San Francisco reporter showed up to interview him and Barter told him what happened. When the journalist showed disbelief, Barter showed him several frostbitten toes that he had amputated and then salted to preserve as a memento and evidence of his fearful night on Lake Tahoe. On Fannette Island in the middle of Emerald Bay, he placed a homemade coffin and erected a small wooden chapel over it as his final resting place. But fate caught up with Barter in October 1873 while he was sailing back from a South Lake Tahoe saloon. A sudden wind gust overturned his boat sending him into the depths of Big Blue. CAPTAIN GEORGE WHITTELL
attended a slew of colleges and universities, but never graduated from any of them. During World War I, Whittell was commissioned a captain in Italy, a rank he forever maintained as a civilian. In 1919, he married Elia Pascal, a French debutante, who would remain his wife for the rest of his life. But Whittell’s frequent sexual dalliances convinced Elia to spend her time in Paris and the couple never had children. Captain Whittell had a lucky streak too. Just before the 1929 stock market crash, he liquidated $50 million in stocks and bonds and moved to Nevada to escape California taxes. Upon arrival, he purchased about 29 miles of spectacular real estate on Tahoe’s east shore. Whittell planned to develop large resorts and hotels at both Sand Harbor and Zephyr Cove. Fortunately, his vision to build the Sand Harbor Hotel and Casino, complete with 200 cottages and an aerial
Whittell hosted all-night poker games at his Tahoe estate with celebrities like baseball great Ty Cobb who had a cabin at nearby Cave Rock. Parties at the Captain’s “summer playpen” were extravagant. Whittell had weeklong affairs with scantily clad showgirls from Tahoe casinos. Drinking was rampant and one underground room was used for smoking opium. Each summer Whittell flew in his pet lion named Bill. In the late 1950s, Nevada bought Whittell’s acreage and developed beautiful Sand Harbor State Park. Thanks to the enigmatic George Whittell, people can tour his historic lakefront Thunderbird Lodge or enjoy 20 miles of pristine, undeveloped Lake Tahoe shoreline.
Tahoe historian Mark McLaughlin is a nationally published author and professional speaker. His awardwinning books are available at local stores or at thestormking.com. You can reach him at mark@thestormking. com. Check out Mark’s blog:
Captain Barter wasn’t the only screwy personality that lived at Lake Tahoe. George Whittell, a playboy millionaire from California showed up in 1929 to buy land for development. Born into a wealthy San Francisco family in 1881, George was the sole heir to his parent’s millions. “Junior” charted out a wild lifestyle that would distress his parents and shock their staid upper-crust friends. A rebellious teen, Junior fell in love with circus animals and followed the Barnum and Bailey Circus around the country. He
Captain George Whittel with “Bill” his lion
tahoenuggets.com.
