Dr. Charlie Goldman at USD, an authority on lake matters, has not mentioned the plug in his numerous writings, and he has been part of the teams that have been deep in the lake in a submarine. So the reader will have to decide about the validity (and location) of the plug.

The Story
In 1858-9 the giant Comstock Lode of silver was discovered beneath Virginia City, Nevada, about 20 miles south of Reno. Over the next 20 years the mine yielded $500-600 billion (2007 dollars) in silver and gold. Fortunes were made and lost on both the mining and on the stock market in San Francisco that supported many of the mining ventures.

One day in early September 1869, a weary San Francisco stock speculator named Lester Williams was vacationing in Carnelian Bay on the North Shore of Lake Tahoe. He relaxed by going fishing, and one day he was drifting quietly in his small boat about three miles southeast of Dollar Point when he noticed his boat going in a lazy circle. Williams soon realized he was caught in a broad whirlpool. "If this is a whirlpool, there must be a hole down there, he thought." He grabbed a loose board used as a forward seat, hastily carved an "L" on it, and tossed it into the center of the whirlpool. The plank was immediately sucked down and disappeared into the lake.


San Francisco
As Williams rowed to shore, an idea hatched in his mind. He landed, grabbed his bags, and returned to San Francisco, post haste. Once there he hurried to visit Tom Speed, an astute stockbroker with an office on Montgomery Street in the center of the financial district. Williams told Speed what he had in mind. For three days the pair tracked down and checked maps, survey reports, and Tahoe water-level readings. Their findings confirmed their concept: The level of Lake Tahoe had dropped over the summer just as the Comstock mines were filling with water.

Speed insisted on one more proof; Williams took off for Virginia City. There, dressed as a miner, he was immediately hired to work in the mines as a pump tender. The mines were having a great deal of trouble with the water. After a couple of days working deep in the earth, Williams was delighted to see the wood plank with "L" on it floating in the water in the main sump-pump pond. He quit and returned to San Francisco where he and Speed completed their plans to get richer quick.

Lake Tahoe
Back at Carnelian Bay, Williams hired carpenters to build him a large, flat-bottom "fishing boat" that had a big well (opening) in the middle of it and a cabin over the well. Once completed, Speed arrived on the scene with two large crates that were muscled aboard at night by the two partners, along with a huge round of Douglas Fir. The next day at sunrise they rowed out to do some "serious fishing."

They found the whirlpool once again, but it took them hours to finally locate the hole in the bottom. They anchored their boat near the hole, which was about three feet in diameter. In the crates they had many feet of chain and a windlass, which they attached inside the boat alongside the well. From the round of fir they fashioned a cone-shaped, wooden plug to which they attached the chain.

With great care, they reeled out the chain via the windlass and allowed the plug to be pulled down into the lake in the center of the whirlpool. They guided the plub into the hole. The moment it was sucked into place, the whirling water stopped. The hole was plugged!

But could the pair get the plug out again? They tugged and strained for several hours. Finally, using the oars as levers, they were able to winch the plug up a little at a time until they overcame the weight of the water at the floor of the lake. They practiced their plugging and unplugging maneuver with the windlass several times; then they headed for shore with the windlass and plug concealed in the boat's cabin. Once there, Speed headed back to San Francisco. He knew what to do.

$ Millions
Over the next two weeks, rumors about the Comstock mines seem to proliferate in San Francisco. The word was that the mines were filling with water rapidly (which was partially true) and that mining may have to stop altogether very soon because the pumps couldn't keep up with the inflow. Of course the share prices of the mines started trending downwards, and suddenly they were free falling. As this was happening, a certain brokerage firm in the City was actually buying the depressed shares...all that could be found. "Who would buy mines full of water?" people wondered.

A few days after the mine stocks had been bought, the mines suddenly stopped filling, the pumps emptied the water, and silver & gold mining was re-started with a vengeance. As this happened, word spread and the share prices shot skyward. Speed and Williams sold their accumulated shares and made millions over the next week.

Then, suddenly, the mines became flooded again, and the cycle was repeated. Share prices fell; the shares were purchased; water stopped filling the mines; share prices went up; Speed and Williams made more millions.

This went on until late in November when cold weather hampered Williams' boat trips to his whirlpool. Speed joined his partner on Thanksgiving Day 1869 for one last trip to the secret place. Greed! As they were lowering the plug, Speed's heavy, gold watch chain caught on the plug chain and he was pulled into the well and the lake. Williams slipped on the wet boat bottom as he frantically grabbed at the thrashing Speed. Both men were pulled down into the icy water, ensnarled in the plug's chain.

The whirlpool sucked the wooden plug and the rich men down until the plug plopped into place one more time.

The battered boat was found washed up on the East Shore after the first winter storm of the 1869-70 season. The windlass was there, but no plug, chain, or occupants.

The plug remains in place to this day, somewhere southeast of Dollar Point.

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For readers with a technical or geographic bent, here are a few facts that relate to the story:
1. The elevation of Virginia City is 6,220 feet above sea level.
2. Some of the mines under Virginia City were dug to depths as deep as an elevation of 3,220 feet. (The mines went down to 3,200 below the surface)
3. Mining in the Comstock Lode eventually had to be halted because of the inflow of water into the lower portions of the mines.
4. The elevation of the surface of Lake Tahoe is 6,225 feet.
5. The lake is 1,640 feet deep at its deepest point, which is about three miles southeast of Dollar Point.
6. The elevation of the bottom of Lake Tahoe is 4,585 feet; this is about 1,300 feet higher than the bottom of the Comstock mines.
7. Water flows downhill.

* * *

Author's Note: Many thanks to the legacies of the deceased David J. Stollery, Jr. of the Tahoe City World and Washoe & Virginia City journalist, Sam Davis; they created original versions of this story. Many ideas in this story were in one of Dave's weekly pieces written and published between 1963 and 1969 as his "Tales of Tahoe."

Copyright © 2009 Steven C. Brandt