Glenbrook

Photo courtesy of Carleen Clark

Lumbering operations in the Glenbrook area of Lake Tahoe began in 1861.  Consolidation of V-flume systems in and near Clear Creek Canyon by 1872 made it possible to float lumber, cordwood, and sawed material from Spooner’s Summit to Carson City and to eliminate wagon hauling over the 9-year-old Lake Bigler Toll Road (King’s Canyon Road).

In 1873, the new Carson & Tahoe Lumber & Fluming Company, under Duane Bliss, assumed all operations, becoming the largest Comstock wood and lumber combine.  It controlled over 50,000 acres of timberland, operating 2 to 4 sawmills, 2 Tahoe Lake steam tugs to tow logs, 2 logging railroads, the logging camps employing 500 men and a planing mill and box factory in Carson City.

Timber depletion and reduced Comstock mining closed the company in 1898; it had taken 750,000,000 board feet of lumber and 500,000 cords of wood from Tahoe basin forests during its lifetime.

STATE HISTORIC MARKER No. 219

DIVISON OF HISTORIC PRSERVATION AND ARCHAEOLOGY

VICTOR O. GOODWIN