Washoe Tahoe Housing Partnership

TO STUDY HOUSING NEEDS AND STRATEGIES FOR INCLINE VILLAGE AND CRYSTAL BAY

A NEWLY FORMED WASHOE TAHOE HOUSING PARTNERSHIP is coordinating a needs assessment and strategies for local resident housing in the Incline Village and Crystal Bay areas of Lake Tahoe. This is the last section of the lake to have this type of housing analysis completed, and will provide important guidance on how the area fits into the greater Lake Tahoe region.

Thanks to a public-private partnership effort to support this project, the Tahoe Prosperity Center is proud to once again serve as the convener for this important issue, bringing together a diverse group of local stakeholders with technical guidance from an expert consulting team.

Of primary importance to this study is input from residents, local employers and employees. Please note, there will be two community surveys in the area this summer — one related to this issue of local resident housing and the other coordinated by IVGID regarding Ordinance 7.

YOU CAN TAKE THE SURVEY HERE:

ENGLISH

s.alchemer.com/s3/WashoeTahoe-Housing-Survey

SPANISH

s.alchemer.com/s3/Washoe-Tahoe

For more information visit our housing page on our website at:

tahoeprosperity.org/housing-study

INCLINE VILLAGE’S

upon the analysis of engineer Hermann Schussler planned to drill a nearly 4,000 foot tunnel through a mountain just north of Marlette Lake at just the right level to allow water from that lake to flow via a new flume and the new tunnel to bring water down to their previous distribution location below Hobart Lake and Famous Flumes then on to Virginia City using the existing flumes and piping. With this knowledge and the completion of the tunnel in 1877 the possibility now existed that timber could also be transported by flumes and the tunnel from the west side to the east side of the In 1880, after establishing a successful mountains. To cement the deal, so to speak, the water company was also building a new flume called the North Flume from Third Creek below what we all now know as Tahoe Meadows down logging business in nearby Little Valley and with the timber mostly to the entrance of their new tunnel to supplement the planned gone on the east side, Walter S. Hobart — already a successful water flow from Marlette Lake. This water could also be used Comstock businessman--and partner Seneca “Sam” Marlette — to move lumber through the tunnel and on down to the Carson the former Surveyor General for the State of Nevada — planned Valley, so moving their sawmill operation to the shores of Lake to move their operations to the Lake Tahoe side of the mountains Tahoe just a few miles from the new tunnel was not such a big where fresh stands of timber were just starting to be cut and gamble after all, right? hauled out. They chose the spot now known as Incline Village for With the North Flume in place and the tunnel open, the sotheir new venture and set about enacting an ambitious plan to called Incline Railway was constructed with cars on opposite collect timber from all over the north end of the lake and milling tracks lifted or lowered by a cable affair turned by a steam it (does “Mill Creek” ring a bell?) at a new sawmill to be built powered Bull Wheel located a short distance above where here. The man to manage this ambitions plan was none other the North Flume crossed on it’s way to the tunnel. In order to than John Bear Overton who not coincidently also had held a allow for the incoming box flume water to be able to power similar position for the Virginia and Gold Hill Water Company the V-flume to move lumber as well as to continue to be used (V&GHWC). But how to get all this milled timber and cord wood as drinking water for Virginia City, a device was created just across the mountains and all the way down to the Carson Valley below the Bull Wheel to split the flow with water going into the on the other side where trains from the Virginia and Truckee V-flume into which the lumber was dropped during the day and Railroad could haul the timber up to the mines in Virginia City? then divert the water to a box flume to continue to flow at night To begin with, they planned to build a short steam powered cable when the sawmill was not operating. The box flume continued car affair to haul milled timber and cord wood up the side of the on to the tunnel at a lower level than the V-flume. When the imposing mountains; the ox and mule team pulled wagons used V-flume reached the tunnel it was then perched directly on top elsewhere in logging just would not do. But how would they get of the box flume for the ride through the tunnel. The two flumes the timber from the ridge tops across the rest of the mountain then separated at the Eastern Portal and went their separate range and down to the Carson Valley on the other side? but initially parallel ways down to Red House — a flume tenders

Well it wasn’t for nothing that Walter Hobart was also an station — where the water company’s existing facility mixed the owner of the V&GHWC which since the early 1860’s had been Hobart Lake flow with the new water. supplying Virginia City and nearby Gold Hill with that most A short note about flume construction is appropriate here. precious commodity that mining, ore milling and the miners who Historically, almost all flumes designed to carry water--at least worked the mines could not live without. Water. Initially much in the mountains--were box flumes, so called because of their of the water that Ol’ Virginy depended upon, at least once the rectangular design with flat bottoms and vertical sides. The sides meager supplies available from wells and mine shafts up there and walls were usually double planked and sand was used in the had played out, came from sources on the west side of the bottom to help seal them from leakage. In addition, since they Carson Valley. The principal source was up the Franktown Creek carried potable water, they frequently needed to be covered to watershed which ended at a small lake named for Hobart himself keep out debris and buried if possible to ground level to minimize near his Excelsior sawmill. By the early 1870’s “his” Virginia & the need for bracing and prevent freezing in the winter. The V Gold Hill had already built dams, box flumes and iron pipes to flume, named for its shape, was invented because it was not only convey that precious water across the valley to Virginia City. easier to construct but also required less water to move logs and But the demand was insatiable and the existing sources were less likely to get obstructed, especially if moving milled timber or running low, so the water company surveyed the options and cordwood which could get crosswise and jam up. V flumes were