Thunderbird Lodge Photos Lake Tahoe, Nevada

George Whittell, aka "The Captain," was born in San Francisco, California in 1881, and became a legendary playboy and ne'er-do-well after inheriting a vast fortune from the family's several Gold Rush related businesses in 1922. Whittell's luck didn't end there, and through an act of sheer luck he pulled his fortune - estimated to be around $50 million - out of the stock market just before the crash of 1929.

Whittell's 1939 Hacker Design 55' commuter yacht, the Thunderbird, pulls into its boathouse adjacent to the Lodge

After purchasing nearly 24 miles (40,000 acres) of Lake Tahoe's eastern (Nevada) shoreline in 19 Whittell hired Frederic J. DeLongchamps to design a modest hunting-style lodge as a mountain getaway. Whittell lived at the lodge part-time along with his third wife Elia, their maid - with whom he had a lengthy affair - and his best friend, a lion named Bill.

Thunderbird Lodge's Great Room

Although Whittell's original intent was to develop his vast land-holdings, building residential housing and casinos at Sand Harbor and Zephyr Cove, he inadvertently became a preservationist as he became increasingly reclusive in his later years. Whittell traveled between his Woodside mansion and the Tahoe lodge using one of several Duesenbergs or a Murphy convertible roadster which he shared with Bill.

The Captain's upstairs bedroom

After Whittell's death in 1980, the Thunderbird Lodge was purchased by Jack Dreyfus of Dreyfus Investments, who sold most of the undeveloped land to the Forest Service and Nevada State Parks department. Dreyfus made the contemporary addition to the lodge, building on the footprint of an unused garage and lighthouse. The remaining property was resold in 1998 for $50 million to the Del Webb Corporation.

Elia Whittell's upstairs bedroom

Kitchen at the Thunderbird Lodge

The Lodge's Card Room, Tunnels and Boathouse

The Card Room Exterior

The Card Room

In the Card Room's bathroom is a secret escape stairway into the tunnel complex

Subterranean passageway connecting the main lodge to the Card Room, Opium Den and Boathouse

The Opium Den

Indoor pool which was originally designed to be a small boathouse, then abandoned after a worker's death

The Thunderbird yacht's Boathouse at the far end of the tunnel

The Thunderbird as originally designed and built by Huskins Boat Works in the 1930s

The Thunderbird was purchased by Bill Harrah (Harrah's Casino) in 1962, who added the matching flying bridge and open stern

Tours are run by the Thunderbird Lodge Preservation Society located at the Tourist Information Center in Incline Village, Nevada.

Note: Images 2 through 14 on this page are not available for resale.