Lake Tahoe Memories
by
Thomas Clayton Ferguson III
I remember a couple of summers
growing up we took a vacation to some cabins on Lake Tahoe near Mercer,
Wisconsin. It was one of the few times that we took a vacation
with my grandmother, aunts, uncles and cousins. It was in the
early 80's as I remember one of the trips my sister Carrie was a
baby. I don't recall how many years we did this. At least
two times for sure. But maybe we went more years then that.
The cabins were all attached in one long row. I remember my
parents cabin was on one end. My Grandmother had a cabin with her
sister and brother-in-law. I forget how many cabins and who
stayed in each.
One year I remember we brought up my Dad's ATV. It was fun taking
it out on the back logging roads in the area. So a lot of people
had fun riding it. As soon as you finished, there was almost
always someone waiting to take a turn on it.
Another year I remember my parents borrowing our next door neighbors
speed boat and bring it up there. I was not old enough to water
ski, so I watched that. But it was fun riding in it around Lake
Tahoe.
The lake was almost like two lakes connected by a channel. I
remember there were huge posts in this narrow channel. We were
told that the posts were from what had been a bridge. Also in
this narrow channel was a huge sunken boat. The story was that
the boat had been a yacht that belonged to some gangsters during
prohibition. They were said to vacation here and brought the boat
to the lake. The story was that they hit the bridge, wrecking the
bridge and sinking their boat. I don't discount the gangster
story. The area was well known for gangsters. Jut a few
miles down the road is Little Bohemia where John Dillinger had his
famous shoot out. Al Capone's personal resort is not to far away
either.
There was a large boat house at the resort. There was a front
room with a bar in it. There was also a nice size back room
behind the bar. I always imagined the place had been a speak easy
during prohibition. And the gangsters having card games in the
back room. The building was very old and in serious disrepair
when we stayed there. It easily was old enough to be from the
prohibition era. And if gangsters did use it, it would explain
the many bullet holes in it's walls.
The coolest part of this building was there was a sauna in one of it's
side rooms. I remember sitting in there, working up a sweat and
then running outside and jumping into the lake. That was so much
fun.
On the lake there was a small beach and pier. I remember spending
most of the vacation here. If it was not swimming, it was fishing
from the pier. I remember one time I was fishing with my brother
Jim, cousin John and cousin Bob. We had bait but the pan fish
were biting so great that day, we quickly ran out. Not wanting to
stop fishing when the were biting so great, we tried using the Cheeto's
we had with. We did not have as much luck but still caught a
few. Who knew that in a pinch we could catch fish with Cheeto's.
I also remember fishing off the pier early one morning as the sun was
coming up. It was foggy and the water was perfectly still.
There I was when a fish bigger than I was surfaced and bumped into the
pier. I thought it was some sort of monster, so I dropped my pole
and ran back to the cabin. I was shaking as I entered the kitchen
where my family had just started making breakfast. I later
learned that others had also seen a huge fish in the lake over the
years. They called the fish the Lake Tahoe monster because of how
big it was. Looking back at it know, and knowing what a Lake
Sturgeon looks like, that it was most likely that. Somehow it
survived over time in the lake. Whenever I hear stories of huge
Sturgeon caught in a lake that should not had been there, I remember my
experience that foggy morning.
One of the years we went there, we went and saw a parade. I think
that this was when we also saw a firework show over a lake. It
was a really neat show as we sat on the beach and got to see the
fireworks reflecting in the water. I think the fireworks were
over one of the lakes in Minoqua or Woodruff.
The only other thing I recall is between the cabins and the beach/boat
house area of the resort was a small stream that fed the lake.
The stream had a couple of small ponds before it emptied into the lake.
Over all, the couple times we vacationed there, it was a lot of
fun. It provided some great memories.