The name on the door

Garfield Wood

An engineer, an industrialist and an inventor — but best remembered for the sleek mahogany boats that carried his name across the water faster than anything else afloat.

1920 – 1933

Fourteen years of the Harmsworth Trophy.

Gar Wood did as much for the sport of boating as any single person in its history. With his mechanic Orlin Johnson beside him, he took the British Harmsworth Trophy every year from 1920 through 1933 — an unbroken run nobody has matched.

His pursuit of the fastest powerboat in the world ended in 1930, when he drove Miss America X to a world record of 102 miles per hour. That hull carried four supercharged Packard engines producing somewhere in the region of 6,400 horsepower.

The Gar Woods pier reaching into Lake Tahoe at Carnelian Bay

The runabouts

Mahogany, leather and a great deal of horsepower.

In the early 1920s Wood developed a line of pleasure craft and runabouts as an offshoot of his racing hulls. Built through the 1940s, they carried beautiful mahogany exteriors, luxurious appointments and powerful engines — the speed and reliability that made Gar Wood boats the premier craft of pleasure boating.

Several delivered to Lake Tahoe in the early 1920s survive in superb condition and can sometimes be seen from our pier: Wild Cat, ToTo, Challenger, Tamarach, Cheecog, Tallac, Hi-Ho, Aunt Lu, Hey There V and Tecolote.

Kathryn, née Dispatch

The 1931 Baby Gar at the end of the pier.

1931Built as the second-to-last 33-foot runabout Gar Wood produced. Purchased and launched by Arthur Bourne at Obexers under her original name, Dispatch.

1950sSold to Stanley Dollar and renamed Wynchwood.

1971Bought by B.C. “Short” Wheeler, who named her Kathryn after his wife.

TodayOwned by Gar Woods and maintained at the Sierra Boat Company next door. She wears the name Dispatch again, and is on display at the pier on calm days.

Carnelian Bay

A shoreline named for its stones.

Originally “Cornelian Bay”, named in 1860 for the semi-precious red and yellow chalcedony found along its shore. Its history runs deep in marine, resort and recreational life on the lake.

1871 Dr. Bourne’s Hygienic Establishment opened on the bay, promoting the pure mountain air and the hot and cold mineral springs as the answer to healthful living. Bourne, an eccentric, tried to rename Lake Tahoe “Lake Sanatoria” and professed that his greatest hope was to live to be a blooming century plant on these shores. He died in the mid-1880s, well short of the mark.

1876 The Cornelian Bay Hotel became a regular stop for the steamer Governor Stanford. Excursionists combed the shoreline for carnelian stones; many opted for Dr. Bourne’s water cure.

1889 Carnelian Bay was listed among Lake Tahoe’s permanent settlements. A stage and wagon road between Tahoe City and Hot Springs ran through it, making the bay reachable by land as well as by water.

1896 – 1910 Three brothers named Flick acquired most of the waterfront land — Bourne’s old establishment, by then the Carnelian Bay Hotel, plus the post office, general store, cottages and wharf. They fished commercially until selling at a considerable profit in 1910.

After 1910 The Carnelian Bay Improvement Company began an extensive subdivision programme: a large hotel, an inland harbour, streets and cottages. Water was piped from a mountain spring, gasoline buggies bounced over the dirt roads, and the steamers Tahoe and Nevada took turns dropping mail and supplies.

1988 The old hotel had become the White House Restaurant, then burned down in favour of the Carnelian House. In 1988 it became Gar Woods — a comfortable dining room built to capture the nostalgic, classic atmosphere of the wooden boat era. Fitting, on a bay that was a favourite spot for boat racing in the 1930s and 40s, a few steps from the Sierra Boat Company.

Take something home

Vintage boat prints, and a shirt or two.

In remembrance of your visit to Carnelian Bay, have a look at our embroidered and screen-printed clothing, casual gifts and 24×18 vintage boat prints.

Visit the shop