LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – The following “Letter to the Editor” is from the July 11, 1876 edition of the Carson Valley Times.
Letter from the Lake. Don’t you want to know how the fever affected me? Of course you’re interested in natural history, and why shouldn’t you? The fourth came and went like a beautiful dream. Many a finger that itched for firecrackers itches no longer.
No more do mountains re-echo the burst of eloquence and blank cartridges. No more does the fragrant smell of gunpowder greet us, nor frightened roosters running for the perch. Glenbrook celebrated. Of course she did. We all did. Glenbrook has a temperate people. No man was allowed to drink a friend’s health at that friend’s expense. He brought his own bottle.
The oration was good; the Dinner was good; the Poem was pronounced a gem; the local bad received credit for both talent and application. Columbia has never been so hailed in these mountains, but it was left for our good friend “Yank” to complete the measure.
He had a fourth on his own hook. Mr. Emmerson orated, and Mr. Denson read the Declaration. A more Ede-like spot could not have been selected.
Mr. Emmerson received marked attention as he reviewed, in his usual happy manner, the progress of our government. Lack of time prevents that careful mention that the oration deserves.
Suffice it to say that Yank’s Fourth was a complete success.
By the way, the junior member of the Tribune has honored the ball with his presence.Is he benevolent, Mr. Editor?
Is money any object?
Could he be induced to organize a dancing school?
Please present this matter to him; and then he won’t have to retire at 12 o’clock to afford Lake Valley an opportunity to dance. It must be painful to be so popular, and such a good dancer he is.
I forgot to mention that our good friend Tom Rowland fired a salute of 50 guns at sunset; and 100 more at dawn. He too used his voice for our Centennial Fourth.
Thomas Rowland owned what was called the Strawberry House in the 1860s when he found out about a parcel of land for sale at the south end of Lake Tahoe. The owners of the Lake House (which was located at the end of what is now Lakeview Avenue in South Lake Tahoe), decided to not rebuild after a fire had totaled the building. Rowland bought the land from the owners, added 33 acres of his own, and started developing the town of Rowlands.
By 1870 Rowland had the makings of a thriving community. There were several homes, blacksmith and cobbler’s shops, a mercantile, milk and smoke houses, and a commercial fishing camp. The main attraction though was Rowland’s Custom House and Saloon, a two-and-a-half-story building constructed on a pier extended over the lake.
It became “The” place to party on Lake Tahoe. Rowland’s “socials” and “crushers,” as dances were called in those days, and it drew “Devil-may-care stags” and “unattached young ladies” from throughout the Sierra. Revelers came by steamboat from Tahoe City and Glenbrook and by carriage and coach from Reno, Carson, Virginia City, and Placerville. Rowland had created the party persona that would belong to Al Tahoe through the AI Sprague and Frank Globin eras. His popularity was such that he was elected to two terms in the California assembly. By the 1880’s, Rowland’s Station had developed a reputation the Pacific Tourist Guide described as “the first place of resort on the lake.”
His Grand Ball in August 1870, six years before that letter to the editor. His guest list was a who’s who and was known as a “smash affair.” The stagecoach line owned by Doc Benton added extra teams to accommodate the anticipated crowds, and all of the boats on the lake brought people from every dock imaginable. As the woodburners (as the steam engine boats were known) pulled into Rowlands pier jammed with shouting party-goers. Lots of single people prompted Carson City news to say the party had the makings of a “crackling time.” Dancing to the music of Church and Jones string and organ quartet brought to the mountains from Sacramento got underway at 8:30 at night, and didn’t let up until 6 am. They all then hopped on the steamers for a day on the lake. Party crashers came from Reno, Gold Hill and Virginia City. Stages came from Placerville, and a group from Carson City hopped on oe of Doc’s coaches and got lost on the way and missed the whole thing, but did get a treat of a sunset from on top of Luther Pass.
Wonder no longer how South Lake Tahoe got a party image.
Thank you Melissa Trader of the Al Tahoe Pioneer Cemetery Committee for finding the article from the Carson Valley Times!