LAKE TAHOE’S THUNDERBIRD LODGE

If you don’t know it’s there, you won’t see it while driving around Lake Tahoe. Nestled on a coastal spur on the Nevada side sits underbird Lodge, the home of “accidental” conservationist and multi-millionaire George Whittell, Jr. And that’s just the way he wanted it.

An Unplanned Legacy

Born in San Francisco in 1881, Whittell inherited his parent’s vast fortune, and was able to indulge in his dream of “never working a day in his life,” instead pursuing his love of adventure and the unusual, from running away to join the circus, to safaris in Africa, to serving as an ambulance driver in World War I. Exiting the stock market with $50 million just before the 1929 crash (equivalent to $4 billion today), he chose to move to Nevada to dodge California income and real estate taxes. It was with this decision that his unintentional Tahoe legacy begins.

By the early 1900s, Tahoe’s mountains had been logged to bare rock. Timber barons saw no value in the land and were eager to sell. With ready cash, and a desire for solitude, Whittell purchased 40,000 acres along 27 miles of shoreline extending from Incline

By CLAUDIA NEWCORN

Village to Zephyr Cove. Although he had originally planned to develop parts of the lake, he grew to see the worth of preserving the region, and resisted offers and demands, building an isolated summer retreat.

As time progressed, the state of

Nevada felt that nobody should own so much land, and used eminent domain to take Sand Harbor. In 1960, he was pushed to sell 9,000 acres of property to developers who would create today’s Incline Village. Whittell was forced to sell o additional parcels over the years, until his death in 1969.

Acquired by Jack Dreyfus in 1972, much of the remaining 25,000 acres were sold to the Nevada State Parks and the US Forest Service, ensuring no further development. Dreyfus added to the building, but spent little time there. In 1993, he sold the Lodge in a complex government exchange in which the land went to the US Forest Service, and responsibility for the historic structures were taken on by the non-pro t underbird Lodge Preservation Society, which manages the property today.

The Lake Cottage

In 1936, construction of underbird Lodge commenced. Whittell was a hands-on owner, constantly changing proposed designs, meticulous about detail. Completed in 1941, the Lake Cottage, as it was originally called, included six cottages built of native stone and timber. He explicitly wanted it to blend in with the natural surroundings. Some