Tour of the Tunderbird Lodge…

Last Wednesday, the group took a day off from our busy schedules to go visit the Thunderbird Lodge as it’s called. It’s on the East side of Lake Tahoe and North of Stateline.

Here’s a shot of the lodge from the parking lot…

And a little further on:

On the path down, I liked the colors here:

Then a shot as we passed the ‘lighthouse’ style semi-modern addition:

Here we are listening to the director, he gives us an ‘insiders’ type tour:

Here’s the view one owner had from their Living, Dining, kitchen, family room:

This is the original living room built by Geo. Whittell Jr. It was built 1936-1940:

A view out the living room windows. This room had a large fireplace on either end that the servants kept burning. In fine weather, the Whittell’s ate dinner out there, served of course. Mostly though, Geo’s wife stayed in Europe and moved in elite circles while Geo’s mistress lived here. They seemed to enjoy the arrangement.

Geo. was a little weird and had his zoo here on the grounds. His favorite pet was a full sized lion. He use to go into bars near his other properties in LA with the lion. One story has it that he was accosted by a patron of the bar that Geo. had cheated in a land deal. The guy was yelling at Geo. so he just told Sam the lion “Up”. Sam just stood up and put his paws on the guys shoulders…scared the crap out of him, he fell backwards and injured himself in the fall. Later he sued Geo. and won $5000, Geo. paid up and said that the entertainment was worth the cost.

Geo. had a 600 foot tunnel carved into the solid granite. Here’s a shot:

It originally went to a dock where supplies were off loaded, also went to an unfinished swimming pool. A workman fell off a ladder and died there so it was never finished. After that accident, Geo. had an extension built that led to this large boat house. The boat is very expensive to maintain so it’s not kept here until the season for tourists starts. They make some expense money off of rentals of the boat for weddings and corporate outings. It’s spectacular…sorry it wasn’t there:

Here’s the historic boat of another informal tour group. They give these tours of the place to potential doners as often as possible, because, as you can imagine, this place is expensive to maintain. This little cove was the original dock for Geo. but he eventually bought a huge boat with dual aircraft engines. Which explains the very large boat house. The thing would get up to 60 MPH.

As with many mansions on Lake Tahoe during the period this was built, it has a separate card house where the rich of the day would while away many hours playing poker. This card room had a secret entrance connected to the tunnel. Geo. would hire dancers from the casino up the coast, bring them by boat into the boat house and then surprise his guests with scantily clad women emerging from the seemingly empty bathroom. There was a secret door in the shower stall, a corkscrew ladder down to the tunnel. This was the way Geo. would leave a game if he was loosing too. And how he would bring up his pet Sam the lion. Sam had a cage in the tunnel. Usually, when guests would arrive at the card house, Sam would be lounging on the floor in front of the fire. Eventually, Sam would crush Geo.’s leg and hip while rough-housing. He wouldn’t go to a doctor for fear that would get Sam taken from him. Years later, Geo. would be confined to a wheel chair because of that accident. There was also a pet elephant and several other exotic animals kept on the grounds.

The card house:

Geo. was a heavy drinker and character but he was also a pioneer, he always had the newest of everything and here at his summer house are the most interesting antques. Radios, old movie projectors, the first air conditioning system on Lake Tahoe, secret doors, odd lofts called play rooms, etc. Worth the time to take the tour if you’re in the area.