Tahoe’s Speedboat King, Part I

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BY MARK MCLAUGHLIN

Everyone who passes through North Lake Tahoe on Highway 28 has driven, jogged or cycled over Dollar Hill, while maritime interests, including the Tahoe City-based paddle wheeler “Tahoe Gal,” cruise past protruding, rock-studded Dollar Point on a regular basis. Like much of the northern portion of the Tahoe Basin, the topography was formed by lava flows from the now-extinct Mount Pluto volcano that sealed the basin and created Lake Tahoe. The Dollar Hill area has had many names over the years. The Washo called it diphEkhwO’tha, which means “white paint river,” for a clay found there with which they decorated their skin. An 1863 map by engineer John Kidder, who was trying to determine the boundary line between the Golden State and Nevada Territory labeled it Chinkapin Point, an American Indian word for deciduous tree species not found in this region. In 1873, the location was dubbed Observatory Point in anticipation of the proposed James Lick Astronomical Observatory, which would house the world’s most powerful telescope at the time. (Instead, the observatory was installed atop Mount Hamilton, east of San Jose.) Timber baron Duane Leroy Bliss formed the Lake Tahoe Railroad and Transportation Company in 1898. He took title to the land around Observatory Point and initiated logging operations. In 1916, Lora Josephine Knight bought the lakefront terrain east of the point on Carnelian Bay from the Bliss heirs, where she built a cluster of modest chalets, an estate she called Wychwood. A decade later Knight would erect and furnish her iconic, Scandinavian-inspired Vikingsholm Castle at Emerald Bay. A new appellation for the picturesque landscape was acquired in 1927 when Knight sold her beloved Wychwood property to wealthy San Francisco-based shipping magnate Robert S. Dollar Sr. In addition to the Wychwood property, Dollar also purchased parcels to the west and on both sides of today’s Highway 28. “Captain” Robert Dollar controlled a huge fleet of commercial steamships and freighters for global trade. His famous Dollar Steamship Line boasted a slew of opulent ocean liners that provided round-the-world luxury passenger service. Before his death in 1932, he was known as the “Grand Old Man of the Pacific.” Eventually the Dollar estate property would be subdivided and sold for housing and condominium developments. In 1962, the U.S. Board on Geographic Names officially designated it Dollar Point. Ultimately, it was Dollar’s son, Robert Stanley Dollar Jr., who would make a name for himself at Lake Tahoe in the 1930s, 40s and 50s, with a distinguished competitive boat-racing career on Big Blue, as well as on the international circuit.

Lake Tahoe’s maritime history originated in the logging industry of the second half of the 19th Century, when dozens of commercial sail and steam-powered boats hauled cargo or pulled large, floating booms of cut timber from around the basin to massive Nevada sawmills at Glenbrook and Incline Village. The bulk of the wood was destined for Virginia City, Nev., where it was inserted deep underground to support the massive tunnel and excavation systems of the Comstock Lode mining operations. The clunky, workhorse sailing vessels frequently struggled with the erratic winds of the Tahoe Basin, which are often calm early in the day and become gusty in the afternoon. Gale-force winds associated with winter storms can make the lake downright deadly. “The Governor Blaisdel,” [sic] named for Nevada’s first governor — H.G. Blasdel — debuted as the first steamship on Big Blue. Designed to ferry passengers and cargo, as well as transport wood, her boilers were fired up in 1864. Other steamers followed as timber enterprises expanded in the basin. The demise of Comstock operations in the 1880s drastically reduced demand for lumber and cordwood and the smoke belching commercial steamers soon disappeared. Entrepreneurs began to envision tourism as the natural successor to the logging and commercial fishing industries.

In June 1896, Bliss launched his luxury steamer “SS Tahoe,” a 169-footlong beauty that was built for comfort and capable of carrying 200 passengers, plus mail and freight. The sleek steel hull was comprised of eight water-tight compartments, which made the ship virtually unsinkable and, with a top speed of 18 knots, she could circle Lake Tahoe in less than eight hours. Known fondly as “The Queen of the Lake,” she transported thousands of passengers for nearly 45 years. In 1901, Bliss built the legendary Tahoe Tavern hotel-casino at Tahoe City and constructed a narrow-gage railroad that connected the lakeside hamlet by rail to Truckee and the transcontinental line. With the improved travel convenience of Bliss’ railroad, wealthy vacationers began building estates on the beaches of Big Blue. Pleasure watercraft soon dotted the lake each summer, open-cockpit launches designed for slow cruising, fishing parties or panoramic sightseeing. By the 1920s, sleeker model designs powered by internal combustion engines transformed the nature of boating on the lake. The well-heeled started commissioning aerodynamically designed speedboats for impromptu racing challenges and the associated bragging rights that came with victory. Locals such as Jacob “Jake” Obexer on Tahoe’s West Shore at Homewood acquired a Gar Wood agency and began selling the elegant wooden speedboats. Obexer was soon followed by Norman Mayfield dealing the competing Chris-Craft brand out of Tahoe Boat Co. in Tahoe City. (Each summer Obexer’s Boat Co. in Homewood hosts the world-famous Lake Tahoe Concours d’Elegance, which showcases classic wooden boats.)

Stan Dollar at Lake Tahoe. | Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley

The frenzy of speedboat racing led to the 1925 formation of the Lake Tahoe Power-Boat Club, forerunner of the Tahoe Yacht Club. Robert S. Dollar Sr. was an early commodore and R. Stanley Dollar Jr., known to friends and associates as Stan, later held the position as well. Dollar Sr. gave Stan his first runabout boat in 1925 when he was just 10 years old, followed by an outboard motor speedboat and later a high-performance hydroplane. With his father’s encouragement, Stan began speedboat racing before he could legally drive a car. In a 1949 interview, he recounted: “What sold me on speedboats was a ride with Gar Wood. It was the first time I’d gone 100 miles per hour. I’ll never forget it … the most thrilling moment of my life.” Garfield “Gar” Wood was a brilliant inventor and successful businessman whose Gar Wood brand racing boats were among the fastest in the world at that time.

But Stan was a speed-racing fanatic long before that ride with Gar Wood. In 1932, shortly before his father’s death, the family made a round-the-world journey onboard a Dollar Line cruise ship. Stan brought along his 28-foot speedboat to race at ports of call. While docked at Manila Bay in the Philippines, the local yachting club organized a regatta to challenge the upstart 17-year-old, who won every race. Stay tuned for Part II in the next edition. n

Read Mark’s 3-part series on Duane Bliss at

Tahoe historian Mark McLaughlin is a nationally published author and professional speaker. His award-winning books are available at local stores or at thestormking. com. You may reach him at mark@ thestormking.com.