13 Jul The SS Tahoe: Disaster and Triumph
How one man lost the symbol of his family’s glory and another achieved glory finding it
When William Bliss, the son of self-made magnate Duane Leroy Bliss, stood on the East Shore of Lake Tahoe outside the fledgling town of Glenbrook, Nevada, on August 29, 1940, it’s unlikely he realized that the debacle of a project he was about to embark upon would come to embody his career.
The oldest of D.L. Bliss’ five children, William Bliss was an architect by training, but hopeful of inheriting his father’s Carson Tahoe Lumber and Flume Company and continuing to build upon its success into the twentieth century.
D.L. Bliss was one of the most successful businessmen in Lake Tahoe history. Born in Massachusetts in 1833, he tried his fortune with the 49ers at the tender age of 16. After vying with other hardy pioneers coursing over the Sierra’s spine, Bliss came into his own in 1860, managing a Silver City quartz mill.
From there, he ascended through the ranks of the burgeoning industry until he hit upon a business idea that would render him flush—supplying lumber to Virginia City mining companies mad to dig out all the silver sleeping in veins of rock beneath Nevada’s desert.
He formed the Carson Tahoe Lumber and Flume Company, commissioned the construction of the famous flume that conveyed timber from Lake Tahoe’s East Shore to the mines outside Carson City, built a narrow gauge railroad from Glenbrook to Spooner Summit and began buying up real estate all around The Lake. At one point, D.L. Bliss, for whom a large West Shore state park is named, owned 50,000 acres in all five counties surrounding Lake Tahoe.
A Symbol of Success
Perhaps the embodiment of D.L. Bliss’ ascendancy to the upper echelons of Western wealth was the 169-foot-long steamship SS Tahoe, replete with every luxurious amenity available.
SS Tahoe, photo courtesy Special Collections Department, University of Nevada, Reno
As the Comstock Lode’s silver dried up, demand for Tahoe timber waned accordingly, and D.L. Bliss, ever the man of vision, saw that Lake Tahoe would transition into a playground for San Francisco, Reno and Carson City’s wealthy.
Thus, he built hotels and sought to dominate the transportation infrastructure of the remote mountain getaway.
D.L. Bliss commissioned San Francisco’s Union Iron Works to construct the SS Tahoe in 1894. The parts were forged and shipped piecemeal via train to Carson City, where a horse-drawn wagon drug them up for assembly on Glenbrook’s shore.
The steamship launched in June 1896. It disembarked from Tahoe City, carrying up to 200 passengers, cargo and the daily mail while rotating in a counterclockwise direction to deliver its freight.
The pier at Tahoe City had railroad tracks so passengers could disembark
and immediately board the S.S. Tahoe to continue their journey to points
around The Lake. Photo courtesy The Western Nevada Historic Photo Collection
Two wood-burning boilers turning a 2,400-horsepower turbine that drove two enormous three-bladed props powered the ship. Bedecked with brass and marble fixtures, electricity, steam heat, hot showers and an ample dining room, the vessel was the picture of luxury and style and a symbol of D.L. Bliss’ material success.
However, the advent of new technologies, including the automobile, soon rendered the ship’s reign as queen of Tahoe’s waters obsolete. In 1930, after nearly three decades of supremacy, the SS Tahoe received the greatest blow to its relevancy as the highway around Lake Tahoe was completed, meaning cargo, people and mail could be transported more efficiently.
The SS Tahoe lost the U.S. Mail contract in 1934, and William Bliss, struggling to prolong his father’s business glory, sold the ship, which sat defunct just off Tahoe City’s shores.
Vandals defaced and even used the once-proud boat occasionally as a rough commode.
Embarrassed by the degradation of his family heirloom, William Bliss bought back the boat for a song and began his most ill-fated project.
He decided he would scuttle the grand ship in 100 feet of water, ju