History: The man behind Gardner Mountain and Gardnerville

Publisher’s note: This is reprinted from the November 1973 Lake Tahoe Historical Society newsletter.

Gardner Mountain was named after Matthew Culbertson Gardner, an early day lumberman of the Tahoe area.

In 1872 Gardner acquired a large timber holding at the south end of Tahoe. His initial operations consisted of felling and splitting fir and cedar close to Tahoe’s waters for cordwood and shakes. When the Carson and Tahoe Lumber and Fluming Company and Walter Hobart’s Nevada Lumber Company appeared on the Tahoe scene, Gardner secured a major contract from them and soon began large scale logging operations.

Gardner constructed Tahoe’s first steampowered standard-gauge railroad. As his operations flourished, he installed a new track, tore it up and reinstalled it over and over again into new sections of uncut forest land to keep up with the Glenbrook Mills demand for lumber. His roundhouse and machine shops were located near the present entrance to Camp Richardson.

After thirteen years in the lumbering business, Gardner found himself financially overextended, and in 1885 he was forced into bankruptcy. His railroad was thus abandoned and his rolling stock sold. “Lucky” Baldwin, who had been eyeing Gardner’s holdings for quite some time, is reported to have offered Gardner the sum of $4,000 for all his land.

Gardner evidently agreed to the arrangement, for he soon returned to his ranch in the Carson Valley and eventually had Gardnerville, Nevada named after him.