It scarcely seems credible to one who visits the quiet, placid resort of to-day that when I first saw it, some thirty years ago, it had three or four large sawmills in constant operation, day and night.

It was then regarded, and so designated in the _History of Nevada_, published in 1881, as "the great lumber manufacturing town of the state." The town was begun in 1860, the land being squatted upon by G.W.
Warren, N.E.Murdock, and R.Walton.In 1861 Captain A.W.Pray erected a saw-mill, run by water-power, but as water sometimes failed, when the demand for lumber increased, he changed to steam-power.

He also secured a thousand acres, much of it the finest timber land, from the government, using in its purchase Sioux Scrip.
Up to 1862 the only way to travel from California to Carson and Virginia City, south of Lake Tahoe, was by the Placerville road which came by Bijou and Lakeside and then over the Kingsbury Grade, via Friday's Station, afterward called Small's, by which latter name it is still known on the maps of the U.S.Geological Survey.

In 1862, however, a new road was projected, branching off to the northwest (the left) from Small's, and following the eastern shore of the Lake, passed Zephyr Cove and Cave Rock to Glenbrook, thence by Spooner's and down King's Canyon to Carson.

This was called the Lake Bigler Toll Road (notice the fact that "Tahoe" was then officially designated in Nevada as "Bigler"), and was completed in 1863.
This demanded the opening of a better class of hotel for travelers and others in Glenbrook, and in the same year the road was finished Messrs.