After the Comstock mines declined in the 1890s, lumber baron Duane L. Bliss turned from timber to tourism. He took his Glenbrook operation apart and shipped its buildings across the lake by barge. At Tahoe City he built a railroad line to the pier at Commons Beach, began the grand Tahoe Tavern hotel and built the two-story Tahoe Mercantile on the pier.
He formed the Lake Tahoe Railway and Transportation Company. By 1902 passenger cars ran along 15 miles of narrow gauge track from Truckee to a trestle pier at Tahoe City. About 25 years later the Linnard Steamship Company and Southern Pacific replaced it with standard gauge track, and Snowball Specials carried visitors to winter sports. During World War II the tracks were taken up and the rails recycled.
Not everyone liked it. Many people opposed the use of public lands, and lumberman Walter Bickford won a lawsuit against Bliss, but it did not stop the development. Bliss died in 1907 and his son William took over. A mysterious fire in 1937 destroyed the Mercantile, the post office and the Cedar Log Saloon. The Tahoe Tavern was torn down in 1964.