I like foggy days best. As my boat inches toward Sand Harbor's southern point, the grayness abruptly parts to reveal imposing stone edifices shimmering in the mist. Gawking at the terraces, gabled peaks, and mysterious grottos, I barely avoid a masonry lighthouse thrusting upward from a submerged rock just off my port bow. I imagine the pixie-like structure beckoning nighttime partygoers toward the narrow entrance to a private cove. Similarly, for 72 years elaborate sirens, searchlights, and loudspeakers have warded off unwelcome visitors as ghosts of well-heeled gentlemen perpetually recall fortunes made and lost in the abandoned Card House on the cliff overhead. It's hard not to gasp when you enter Whittell's Castle, Thunderbird Lodge.

The Enigmatic Whittell

With the story of Captain George Whittell, it's tricky to separate fact from fiction. He was a man of near infinite resources and repulsed by gainful employment, the sole heir to the real estate fortune of his forbearers' California Gold Rush endeavors. By age 20 the irascible and cunning Whittell had mastered seven languages, was an accomplished yachtsman, and safaried to unexplored parts of Africa. He uncannily predicted the Crash of '29, insulating his family wealth from the effects of the Great Depression. Dabbling with the occult, believing in reincarnation, and charged with morphine abuse by a disinherited relative, the Captain barreled through life at full throttle in pursuit of wild animals, wilder women, and technical gadgetry.

Like Howard Hughes of the same era, it's unfortunate we remember Captain Whittell for the eccentricities of later life and not for his earlier achievements. With each passing year, he became more reclusive which only served to amplify the stories about him. Today, we enjoy vast tracts of vacant Lake Tahoe land formerly owned and never developed by the Captain because he guarded his privacy with such religious fervor.

A Castle and a Boat

While acquiring some 45,000 acres of former timberland, —nearly the entire Nevada side of Lake Tahoe including 25 miles of shoreline,— Captain Whittell constructed his Tudor Revival-style mansion on a rocky promontory. Built by Scandinavian carpenters, Native American stone masons, Virginia City miners, and Italian ironworkers, the nine building compound includes an elephant barn, cottages, animal cages, and is Nevada's only National Historic District house museum estate.

A lakeside retreat needs a boat so Whittell commissioned Naval architect John L. Hacker to build an all-weather commuter yacht to reflect the lines of Whittell's Dusenberg automobiles and DC-2 aircraft. The 55-foot Thunderbird has ruled Lake Tahoe since July 14, 1940 when the Captain quietly piloted her art-deco elegance away from Tahoe City in the pre-dawn hours to avoid an expected crush of newspapermen. Today, Thunderbird rocks gently in her steel boathouse blasted from solid rock. Still operating, her twin 1000 horsepower WWII fighter aircraft engines reverberate all along the 600' long tunnel connecting the boathouse to the interior of the Castle and the secrets within.

Preserving the Legacy

As a Castle Club member, I'm invited to nudge my own boat alongside the Thunderbird Lodge dock as the fog burns off. A concierge secures the line and offers a beverage. Waterfalls cascade into the lagoon, six acres of master-planned gardens surround me in scent, and I hear music of the Gatsby era wafting from the Castle above. It's hard to imagine these visible monuments to Whittell's legacy at risk and yet, should the non-profit stewards of the Castle and Yacht fail to timely match a generous $10-million gift with $5-million raised from the community, all of this may be gone in a few short years.

Castle Club members are historic preservationists saving Thunderbird Lodge and Yacht by contributing at the highest levels. In return, these donors may join an elite fraternity enjoying unparalleled access to the historic site when it is not in use for the educational, scientific, and cultural programs of the Thunderbird Lodge Preservation Society. Castle Club members may purchase fine art, wine, and food at Thunderbird Lodge from eminent artists, vintners, and chefs. Only Castle Club members arrive at the historic site by private boat, have preferential use of the Thunderbird yacht, and may rent the historic site for private parties and events.

Partnerships like Castle Club are rescuing heritage sites around the globe. These kinds of major-giving programs pay the real cost of keeping America's treasures open to the public: including the nearly 10,000 visitors and schoolchildren who experienced Tahoe's Gilded Age at Thunderbird Lodge last year. Collaborating with the likes of Parasol, Project Manna, Tahoe Yacht Club Foundation, and Make-a-Wish, we are ensuring Thunderbird Lodge and Yacht remain central to the culture, education, and well-being of our Lake Tahoe communities for generations to come.

For more information about contributing at any level to preserve Thunderbird Lodge and Yacht, please call (775) 832-8750.