Yes we all know about the Washoe Indians who populated the Lake Tahoe region for ten thousand (10,000) or more years before the white man’s arrival in 1844¹. And the tens of thousands of emigrants who stopped at Lake Tahoe² during the 1849 rush on their way to the gold fields of California³. And the massive harvesting of lumber transported⁴ to the northeastern crest of the mountains on their way to Virginia City’s silver mines⁴ above what would eventually become Incline Village⁵. And Mark Twain⁶, of course, who described Lake Tahoe as “surely the fairest picture the whole world affords…the masterpiece of the universe,”¹ and its “water (a)s purer than the air, and the air is the air that angels breathe.”¹ But no history of Incline Village would be complete without discussing legendary “Captain”⁷ George Whittel, Jr.⁸ and the McDonald Carano law firm. So here we begin our discussion with “the Captain.”⁹

George Whittel, Jr. It would be easy to dismiss “the Captain” as no more than an historical footnote were it not for the tremendous effect, albeit inadvertently, he had on Lake Tahoe’s Northeastern Shoreline¹⁰. The Captain was born on September 28, 1881 to San Franciscan “economic elites.”¹¹ His life long ambition was to live an unproductive life committed to the notion of never having to work (something he excelled at). When his father died in 1922, The Captain became one of the richest forty-two (42) year olds in America¹². In 1929 he chose to make Northern Nevada his second home, primarily because of the lure of no income nor estate taxes, forming the Nevada-based business “George Whittell and Company Investments.” And in what may have been his only act of business acumen, just weeks before the stock market crash of 1929 the Captain pulled $50 million¹³ out of the market. His thought process was that “when men stop boozing, womanizing and gambling, the bloom is off the rose.”

In 1936 at the age of fifty-four (54), the Captain partnered with friend Norman Blitz¹⁴ (a Nevada entrepreneur and real estate agent) to purchase (for roughly $2 million) twenty-seven (27) miles of Lake Tahoe shoreline on the Nevada side of the Lake¹⁵ from Sierra Nevada Wood and Lumber Company¹⁶. And until 1969, he continued to amass a vast majority of the acreage on the Nevada side of the Lake (in Washoe, Carson, and Douglas Counties) all the way from Kings Beach to Stateline. Although Whittel’s original intention was to augment his own estate with large-scale development¹⁷, after his remote stone mansion was completed in 1936 (see discussion below), his appetite for development waned. He realized he “liked not having neighbors.”

Soon after creating his Nevada investment company, Whittell commissioned Nevada architect Frederick DeLongchamps to design an isolated complex of buildings (at a reputed cost of $300,000) perched on a rocky promontory known as Observation Point¹⁸ on Lake Tahoe’s northeastern shore. Having a profound interest in poker, alcohol and women¹⁹, this eccentric playboy became known for his wild parties for actors, politicians, former presidents, baseball legend Ty Cobb, and a fellow notoriously reclusive billionaire, Howard Hughes, at what was known as “Whittell’s Play Pen.”

Notwithstanding his aversion to large scale development, commencing in 1938 Whittel began selling small parcels along the northeastern shoreline of Lake Tahoe²⁰. Over the next twenty (20) years he sold over sixty (60) lakefront lots²¹ along the former route of State Highway 28²² (the current route of Lakeshore Blvd). Then in 1958 he was allegedly “tricked” (by John Maloney) into conveying an option to purchase 9,000 acres [fourteen and one-half (14-1/2) square miles] of pristine, undeveloped, forest lands²⁰. Maloney peddled his option (for $300,000) to anyone who would bite. Eventually two (2) certified public accountants (“CPAs”) from Oklahoma, Eugene Jordan and Arthur Wood, bit. And on September 24, 1959 (the eve of the option’s expiration), it was exercised and the $5 million purchase price was paid²³. Folklore has it the $5 million was stuffed into shopping bags and left on Whittel’s front doorstep²⁴. Regardless, a total of $5.3 million was paid by Art Wood and company.

The lands were deeded to Jordan (the holder of the option) and within a week (October 1, 1959) they were conveyed to Art Wood’s Nevada Lake Tahoe Investment Company²⁵. Then on June 1, 1960 the property passed to the Crystal Bay Development Company (“CBD”) for a whopping $25 million²⁶! Art Wood became CBD’s president²⁷, and his investors became its shareholders. And so began the story of the newly created “Incline Village.”

The McDonald Carano Law Firm: Robert McDonald was an attorney, and the founding partner in the firm of Bible, McDonald, Carano and Wilson (now known simply as McDonald Carano) of Reno, NV. In 1949 “Bob” and former United States Senator Alan Bible created the firm. Immediately “prior to its launch…Alan Bible served as Attorney General for the State of Nevada with Bob McDonald serving as his Deputy” Attorney General⁴. And between 1954-1974, Mr. Bible served as United States Senator for the State of Nevada. One could conclude these two had friends in high places. Given Art Wood and Company’s intent was to develop Incline Village into “a complete recreational area (consisting of)…two great golf courses; the finest tennis facilities in the world…a major ski development; riding stables…trails to the very crest of the (Sierra) mountains…gaming and related night club entertainment…a cultural center with related youth programs…(and) use of Lake Tahoe, the most important and actually the very heart of a complete recreational base…(complete with) family parks for picnics…swimming and…boating access to the Lake for fishing and water skiing,”²⁸ and as real estate developers they were new to Nevada, they needed friends in high places. And as you will see, McDonald and Bible became just what the doctor ordered!

1. See https://www.fostertravel.com/the-fairest-picture-the-whole-earth-affords-mark-twain-on-californias-lake-tahoe/.
2. The Washoe Indian word Tahoe meant “water in a high place” or “lake in the sky.”¹
3. Reportedly, hundreds of thousands of gold seekers streamed to the Pacific Coast hoping to strike it rich.
4. Built in 1880 and operational until 1894, four small railcars were lifted nearly 1,400 vertical feet via 8,000 feet of cable by the Incline Railroad (the rail line was 4,000 feet long) connected to two 12 foot diameter bull wheels and pulled by a steam engine (see https://www.truckeehistory.org/sierra-nevada-wood-and-lumber-company.html). At the mountain crest lumber was deposited into a giant V-flume filled with water [constructed by Walter Hobart (Nevada State Controller) and Seneca “Sam” Marlette (Nevada and California Surveyor) who founded the Virginia & Gold Hill Water Company {incorporated into the Sierra Nevada Wood & Lumber Company (“SNW&LC”) in 1878}] where it floated nearly 4,000 feet through a mountain tunnel just north of Marlette Lake, and another seven (7) or more miles through 12” diameter wrought iron pipe (known as the Virginia & Gold Hill water tunnel), down 1,720 feet and back up again in an inverted siphon to Washoe Valley and Virginia City (see https://www.truckeehistory.org/sierra-nevada-wood-and-lumber-company.html). Since Nevada is mostly desert, timber was needed to shore up the many underground silver mines in Virginia City.
5. “In 1884, the remote settlement of ‘Incline’ was declared both an election precinct and fourth (4th) class post office” (see http://www.alpinerealtytahoe.com/area-resources). Ten years later it became a ghost town inasmuch as “most of the timber on the west side of the Carson Range (was) logged off…(SNW&LC) closed down (its) business in Incline, moved (its) operations to an area just north of Truckee…and the railroad, sawmill and most of its employees moved as well. The land around Lake Tahoe began to return to nature, albeit largely without trees — it was a virtual moonscape for many years to come” (see https://issuu.com/justimagine/docs/lwpnl_smr21/s/12490217). Thus setting the stage for its sale in in 1936 to the Captain (see discussion below).
6. After failing to find riches in the rough 1860s mining camps of the Nevada Territory, Samuel Langhorne Clemens found his true calling in John Piper’s Virginia City saloon as a raucous newspaper writer who adopted the pen name Mark Twain (see https://www.tahoemagazine.com/mark-twain-at-lake-tahoe/).
7. George Whittel liked to be called “the Captain” because he “served as an ambulance driver and a U.S. Army ‘captain’ in WWI” (see https://www.onlinenevada.org/articles/george-whittell-jr#:~:text=George%20Whittell%20used%20the%20title,the%20rest%20of%20his%20life).
8. Much of the history which follows comes from the 2002 book “Castle in the Sky” written by Ronald M. and Susan A. James.
9. We discuss attorney Robert McDonald’s contribution to Incline Village in the pages which follow (go to https://ivgid101.com/why-a-general-improvement-district/).
10. By and large Whittell refused to develop the majority of his massive Lake Tahoe holdings leaving them pristine for generations to come. For this reason he is remembered as the “accidental conservationist.”
11. His father was the founder of the San Francisco Water Co., the precursor to today’s Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (“PG&E”).
12. His father left an estate valued at $29 million.
13. Valued at over $60 billion in 2015 dollars.
14. George was the money guy.
15. Encompassing essentially 95% of the Nevada shoreline — all of the land from Crystal Bay, Incline Village, Sand Harbor, Glenbrook, Cave Rock and Zephyr Cove to Round Hill [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbird_Lodge_(Lake_Tahoe,_Nevada)].
16. Go to https://www.truckeehistory.org/sierra-nevada-wood-and-lumber-company.html.
17. He had plans for large casino and hotel resorts in Zephyr Cove and Sand Harbor.
18. This complex eventually became the Thunderbird Lodge.
19. Notwithstanding, he was married to French debutante Elia Pascal.
20. What would later become Incline Village.
21. Most of the buyers were individuals who built lakeside homes.
22. See https://www.clubtahoe.com/history-of-incline-village/.
23. See http://tahoequarterly.com/summer-2016/a-castle-in-the-pines.
24. As the Captain allegedly wouldn’t open the door, having suffered remorse over having been tricked into selling his beloved lands
25. Comprised of a handful of investors from Oklahoma, Kansas, and Hawaii.
26. Over five (5) times what Art Wood and his group of investors had paid a scant nine (9) months earlier.
27. See Whiston v. McDonald, 85 Nev. 508, 458 P.2d 107, 109 (1969); https://www.yourtahoeplace.com/ivgid/about-ivgid/history-of-ivgid.
28. See Harold Tiller’s October 25, 1965 letter testimony presented to the Washoe County Board of Commissioners (“County Board”) in support of the IVGID Board’s request the District be granted the supplemental basic power of public recreation [see pages 159-160 of the packet of materials prepared by staff in anticipation of the Board’s May 27, 2020 meeting (“the 5/27/2020 Board packet“)].