Thunderbird Lodge Historic Site

1930s Stone Lakeside Estate Built For George Whittell Jr. On Lake Tahoe'S East Shore; National Register Of Historic Places; Tours By Reservation Only · Incline Village, Nevada

Thunderbird Lodge is a stone and timber estate on the rocky east shore of Lake Tahoe, a few miles south of Incline Village, built in the late 1930s for George Whittell Jr., a San Francisco heir who is said to have sold his stocks shortly before the 1929 crash and then spent decades buying up much of the Nevada shoreline and living as a wealthy, eccentric recluse. The main lodge, credited to the Reno architect Frederic DeLongchamps, is built of granite and heavy beams so that it seems to grow out of the boulders, with a boathouse, a card house, staff quarters and a tower room grouped along the water. Tour guides tell of Whittell's pet lion, an elephant, all-night card games and a long tunnel cut through rock between the lodge and the boathouse, where his mahogany speedboat, the Thunderbird, has often been kept. Today a nonprofit preservation group runs small guided tours by reservation, mostly in the warmer months, and visitors normally ride a shuttle from Incline Village rather than driving to the gate. It is a small, local attraction, best paired with Sand Harbor.

5000 State Route 28, Incline Village, Nevada, 89451, United States

NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED. The typical pattern: guided tours run on a set schedule of daytime departures, most often from late spring to early autumn, with shuttles leaving a meeting point in Incline Village for each tour; out of season there may be no tours at all, and the schedule can change for private events, weather and wildfire smoke. The traps that ruin a day are driving to the lodge's address on NV 28, where there is no public access or parking, arriving without a booking, missing the shuttle because of summer traffic in Incline Village, bringing children below the current age limit, and planning a visit in winter or spring before the season starts. Confirm current times before relying on them.

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