Hidden Kingdoms
by Chérie L. Turner
Private enclaves in the Sierra are the ultimate secret retreats of the privileged and the powerful, with ownership passed from generation to generation. Now one of these fiefdoms may become public property.
This is a story about secret places. Getaways shared by generations of the same families—private enclaves of hundreds or even thousands of acres, locked away behind steel gates and down dirt roads. These kingdoms of grandiose, yet relaxed living feature compounds of homes that host rambunctious parties, summer-long fishing contests, family campfires and latenight conversations between the privileged and the powerful. These are the places whispered about between those-in-the-know, where visitors are sworn to secrecy and trespassers confronted—places whose secrecy is the essence of their magic.
Somewhere on the western slopes of the Sierra near Lake Tahoe is a complex of summer vacation homes surrounded by many acres of private land and separated from the rest of the world by a very long road and a locked gate. The property has been owned by the same group of families for multiple generations; new owners are voted in by all.
A few ridges away, a secretive cluster of families lives a more bohemian lifestyle in a gorgeous valley. Other private fiefdoms of the region are decidedly smaller, like the three private homes that sit near a stretch of Tahoe's shoreline in the midst of a large tract of public land.
Relics of History
The story of how some of these kingdoms have come into existence dates back to the Pacific Railroad Act of 1861. To help finance construction of the transcontinental railroad, the government granted the Central Pacific Railroad Company (in California) and the Union Pacific Railroad Company (through Nevada) every other square mile in a checkerboard pattern surrounding the tracks, for ten square miles on each side. The thought was that the companies would sell the land in order to finance the railroad construction. The checkered pattern of private and government holdings is still evident today on Forest Service maps. Over time, much of the land was sold to the timber companies (through such sales, logging giant Sierra Pacific Industries became the largest private landholder in California) or back to the government. But in some cases, large portions that were sold to private owners still remain in their hands today, and they utilize this mostly-untamed wilderness solely for their own enjoyment.
Around Lake Tahoe, prominent individuals have been acquiring large sections of property for over 150 years. Their dealings have shaped much of the history and face of the area today. Several of these purchases were used to create resorts, enticing the social elite of the time to the area. Some private properties, like the storied Vikingsholm and Thunderbird Lodge (or Whittell Estate), were single-owner holdings that were later sold or granted to the government for public use and have been preserved virtually in their original state.
Still other purchases were large private ventures that have since been sold piece by piece to numerous individuals, creating the communities we know today. An interesting example of this is the West Shore community of Tahoma, which in 1925 was mostly bought and subdivided by H.L. Henry. His vision was to turn the area, dubbed Tahoe Cedars Tract, into a Hollywood colony by selling lots to prominent motion picture types; among the buyers were Lon Chaney and Lina Basquette. Two years later, Henry agreed to sell 60 of his lots to followers of the Four Square Gospel, who wanted to turn the property into a Bible colony and camp. Neither venture came to fruition, and the lots were later sold to the general public.
Finally, there still exists private land that is co-owned by multiple families, with ownership granted only through inheritance or invitation. Guests are asked not to talk about their experiences. One such property is the historic location of a deadly battle between native tribes. Later, this spot hosted John Muir and Mark Twain. The trout pond of another is purportedly only open to those aged 70 and older.
Normally, the story of Tahoe's hidden kingdoms could not be told without ignoring the owners' wishes for privacy, exposing their locations or risking presenting an inaccurate picture (sources are few and tell sometimes contradictory stories). However, the recent "outing" of Incline Lake, whose owners have decided to seek public purchase, now affords a view into the magic history of one of Tahoe's signature private enclaves.
Inside a Hidden Dukedom
Incline Lake encompasses 777 acres of land located near the top of Mt. Rose Highway, and is owned by multiple families. Over the years, the children and grandchildren of the original titleholders have scattered far and wide, and soon Incline Lake Corporation, as the owners call themselves, hopes to complete a sale of the property to the U.S. Forest Service. The owners have opened up their land, and to a certain extent, their history, in hopes that the public will support the sale.
The story of Incline Lake is entwined with that of one larger-than-life individual—Norman H. Biltz—who Fortune magazine dubbed the "Duke of Nevada" in 1954. Biltz is a seminal figure in this region's history—a dealmaker, creative entrepreneur and tireless promoter of the area during and after the Depression years. In 1938, he came into possession of Incline Lake through his arranging of the sale of the entire northeast corner of the Tahoe Basin to George Whittell, of Thunderbird Lodge fame. But rather than keep Incline Lake for himself, he opted to share its ownership with a number of his friends.
Born in 1902 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Biltz started his business career at age 10, as a shoeshine boy. "I went around in the evening to people's houses and shined their shoes," said Biltz in an oral autobiography dictated to Mary Ellen Glass in 1969, "Sometimes I would hear that they wanted to buy a new rug, they were gong to move, or whatever. So I would jot these down in my mind, and go around to the furniture store or the wholesaler, and ask them if they would give me ten cents or twenty-five cents if I'd tell them where they could sell a rug or move some furniture."
The young wheeler-dealer bounced around the country in his early adult years but eventually landed in the Northern Nevada/ Lake Tahoe region and got involved in real estate. It was during the Depression and Northern Nevada was desperate for money but rich with tax incentives. "‘I'm going to go out and solicit wealthy people to come into the state,"' Biltz decided, according to Norm Nash, his grandson and current president of the Incline Lake Corporation. "There was no state income tax, no state sales tax, no state inheritance tax. It was very lucrative for people on the East Coast who had just started paying income tax to come out to the Wild West."
Some of the people Biltz called on he knew through business or personal contacts. But he was not shy about approaching strangers. At one point, he sought out and solicited the 25 wealthiest people on the East Coast to convince them to invest in Northern Nevada.
Possessed with innate charm and a heartfelt desire to share what he'd discovered here, he soon convinced many wealthy individuals to invest in the state. Nash says this was because he wasn't only charming, but he was genuinely concerned with taking care of others. "My grandfather was a person who, rather than being worth $100 million, made 100 other people into millionaires."
Biltz loved this area and wanted it to grow in a way that preserved its character. "His approach was: ‘Don't let Northern Nevada grow faster than the infrastructure can support,'" says his grandson. "He didn't want to have uncontrollable industry, uncontrollable gaming. He was instrumental in preventing Northern Nevada from becoming like Southern Nevada, where the Mafia got involved in gaming. He prevented a lot of that from happening here."
Among the many people Biltz brought to the area was Whittell, the eccentric San Francisco millionaire whom he convinced to buy over 100,000 acres that included 27 miles of Tahoe lakefront from the Cal Neva to just past Zephyr Cove. Rather than pay him commission, Whittell gave Biltz the Incline Lake property.
"It is my belief," says Nash, "that there was a smaller lake on the property that they dammed up on two sides." Around the 43-acre lake that resulted, Biltz built the parcel's first structures. But he soon decided to share his oasis with select friends and family. "He was sharing in the enjoyment," says Nash. "It wasn't about making a profit; it was more like, ‘Now that I've got this, I don't want it just for myself. I want my friends to enjoy it. So here, come in and take an interest, and we'll develop these resources, and we'll keep it.' And that's what they have done." Stockholders have included Max Fleischmann of Fleischmann's Yeast, Wilbur May of May department stores, and William Lear of Lear Jet.
"It was a close-knit group," says Nash. "To get in you had to be approved by the board; you had to be recommended. They wanted to have people that were compatible with one another. Some of the families have gone through two or three generations of ownership."
Playland for the Powerful
Possessing a lake abundant with fish, a double-lake view of Incline and Tahoe, and some of the purest water to come out of the Sierra, Biltz utilized the area to host the who's-who of the day. "Incline Lake became a place he [Biltz] would bring people to get them to enjoy the state," recalls Nash. "He met thousands of people and anytime they came to Nevada he would take them to Incline Lake. The economy was just coming back, but you had to get wealth into the state in order to make these things happen. He was the ‘Duke of Nevada' because of all his tentacles; for everything that had anything to do with the state, you had to go to Norm Biltz, because he knew what was going on. Incline Lake was a place where these people would congregate." Although Nash says that he doesn't recall it happening, a rumored story tells of Lear and Howard Hughes sitting around the campfire at the lake drawing airplane designs on paper napkins.
Biltz's connections extended throughout the country. His second wife, Esther Auchincloss, was from a very prominent New York family and an aunt of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Guests to the lake included Errett Cord of the E.L. Cord Foundation and A.K. Bourne of Singer Sewing Machines, both of whom Biltz convinced to invest in Nevada. "All of these people, in one way or another," says Nash, "have contributed to the growth of this state."
It wasn't only wealthy businessmen whom Biltz brought to the lake. Guests included a full spectrum of notable individuals, from politicians to celebrities to star athletes. The lake hosted Chief Justice Earl Warren and was where Lucille Ball caught her first fish. "Jimmy Hoffa came up to Incline Lake," remembers Nash. "They all used to go up there and get drunk, raise holy hell and just have a lot of fun."
Biltz was the sort of "man's man" that fit into his era of "two-fisted drinking." The revelry usually resulted only in harmless, next-day storytelling, although it could lead also to deals between the power elite.
One night, Biltz's fun definitely got the best of him. As the story goes, he had just acquired the Cal Neva, but shortly after he became the owner, he gambled it away in one night! He had accepted a deal for the sale of the club from a man in the entertainment business, but Biltz took the down payment from that deal and gambled it—and more—away at the Cal Neva that same night. When he came in the next morning, the club's buyer said, "Norm, you had a hell of a night last night. There are two things you should know. One, you don't owe us any money. And two, we don't owe you any money."
End of an Era
When Norm Biltz died 1973, the golden era of Incline Lake died with him. "The people who came to Incline did so because they were friends with my grandfather," says Nash. "After he died, there were a lot of changes. It became ‘Incline Lake Corp.' It wasn't Biltz's lake anymore. Even though he had only kept a fractional interest in it, it had always been Norm Biltz's lake."
The absence of Biltz's energizing force has changed the attachment of the owners and their heirs. Therefore, the corporation has decided to take advantage of the opportunity provided by the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act (SNPLMA) of 1998, and put the property up for sale. SNPLMA allots money made from the sale of federal land in Las Vegas, Nevada, to buy environmentally precious land on the Nevada side of the Tahoe Basin. Incline Lake is both the largest and most environmentally rich property to be considered for current purchase. While the sale has appeared to be moving forward, it was potentially derailed this spring by the Bush Administration's announcement that 70 percent of SNPLMA's money should be used to help reduce the budget deficit.
If the sale does go through, it could happen as soon as early 2006. It would be one of the most expensive land purchases ever made by the federal government. "It's one of the premier acquisitions in the country by any federal agency," says Jacques Etchegoyhen, who represents Incline Lake Corp. through his company, Terra Firma Associates. With the price variously tagged at between $70 and $100 million, assessing the land has been a considerable challenge.
"There are creeks full of great trout fishing, a series of meadows and acres of wild flowers—delphinium that grow up to six feet tall in the summer," says Etchegoyhen. "This is national park-type land. What do you compare it to? The appraiser has told us that nothing he has assessed is as pretty as Incline Lake." In addition to its natural charms, the property also includes an observatory with a deep-space telescope.
It is unclear at this point how this property will be managed if acquired by the government. Perhaps the Tahoe Rim Trail will be redirected through the property, as was in the original Trail plans. Perhaps we'll be able to fish its lake and streams. Or hike to vistas that give us that certainto- be-famous double-lake view.
Despite his desire to see the sale through, Biltz's grandson does have his reservations about how his family's legacy will fare. "Because the property has been under private ownership," says Nash, "it was always cared for. The people there had a financial interest in making sure that nothing detrimental happened. When you have a public interest, some people have a tendency to feel like, ‘I have an inalienable right to use this property, so I'll carve my name in this tree, or I'll leave my garbage here because nobody's going to see me, or I'll ride my dirt bike all over and destroy vegetation.' The public are not as accountable for their actions. So in a way private ownership can be a better steward of a property."
Nash is also concerned that Incline Lake's history is in jeopardy of being lost. "Under public management," says Nash, "you have entities like the Forest Service that are strapped financially. The Forest Service is not involved in preserving the history of the place, and we lose that." Lack of financial support can also spell the end of historic buildings. Unable to maintain upkeep of the East Shore's Dreyfus Estate, acquired by the public in 1996, the Forest Service is planning to level the mansion. Nash fears that the facilities of Incline Lake might meet a similar fate.
The destiny of Incline Lake may or may not be repeated in the other secret enclaves of the northern Sierra. One might expect that those privy to these rare spots would hang on to them with every fiber of their beings. All one can say for sure is that the privacy and anonymity these places enjoy is becoming increasingly hard to sustain in our interconnected world.
For the time being, however, we are still living in an age of hidden kingdoms. With their locations a mystery and their borders closed, isn't it just a little bit wonderful to know that such fairytale places still exist, titillating the edges of our imagination?