Then and now: Camp Rich always popular
Camp Richardson in the 1950s. Photo/CampRichardson.com
Into the 1950s, a large two-story frame building stood center on the Camp Richardson beach.
Upstairs featured a hardwood dance floor and bandstand stage. Downstairs was storage for rental kayaks, canoes, paddleboards, small boats, and bicycles. The single-story wing (at right) was a snack bar, fronting Camp Rich’s original pier and rental shack (just right of photo).
Camp Richardson today. Photo/Bill Kingman
Remnants of that building’s concrete foundation remain today. The pier is gone. The structure visible at far left was a wood frame summertime rental cabin named Austin. (Al Richardson named his rental cabins after historic cars). I stayed there in 1950. Here’s the same beachfront today.
The snack shack, far left, and what it looks like today.
After that old two-story beachfront structure was razed, a new brick snack bar and storage barn combination was built in the mid-1950s on the Austin cabin site. In summertime, its roomy storage area became the dance floor replacement for the old demolished building. It was especially popular with teens, complete with a jukebox. Do you remember “seven plays for 25 cents”?
Camp Rich, above left, before, and above is now.
South Tahoe High School class of 1959 had its graduation party there.
This 1950s snack bar and storage building evolved into today’s Beacon restaurant in the mid-1980s.
— Bill Kingman
I continue to love these ‘flashbacks’ of Tahoe. I didn’t come here, for the first time, until 1982 so I love knowing more about the THEN.
Awesome, thanks Bill.
Love the old photos, and love Camp Richardson & the adjacent Tahoe Tallac site estates – my favorite walking area with amazing views.
In the spring of 1985 I had a little too much to drink and climbed the Brig.
I liberated the cool “BRIG” sign before the bar was turned into the Becon.
Still hanging in my cabin.
Bill Kingman, Yes, those old cabins off to the left all had car names on them, Studebaker, Packard and others. Yes, I do remember the old jukeboxes but the one I recall best was at the Burger Bar on Ski Run. I remember it being three songs for a quarter and the pin ball machines were ten cents for one game or three plays for 25 cents.
I’m glad Camp Richardson is still here and it was good seeing you there at the Lake Tahoe Historical Society event… to join LTHS call(530.541-5458).
If you get a chance type in “Give me back my Tahome”, a youtube video that’s 4 minutes long and has some great shots and good music. Keep smilin’, OLS
Thank you Kim. I certainly remember the dances we went to at the snack bar by day and dance hall by night. Then we would go home and get-up and go water-skiing with Jon Edwards, Greg Johnson and Laura Nick in the early morning as in still dark. Camp Rich and Jameson Beach in 1961 my age was 14. Always “the best”.
Ski-ing in the dark?! That sounds scary! We got out there quite early, though, and relished the water when it was smooth as glass. Dad’s homemade ski boat had an 8 cylinder car engine in it because he needed a really strong engine to pull him up. I remember flooring the thing to bring it up to 30 or 35 mph until he was standing, then leveling off and settling in for a long run. Dad loved to play with the wakes on his homemade single ski. I even remember him smoking a cigarette out there at the end of the rope. Crazy.
With all that power, I popped up like a cork, stood up, and cleared the wake before it had time to form. I remember one time skimming along on that glassy surface, admiring the scenery around me, and thinking, “I could die doing this and be totally OK with it.” I was already in heaven.
Our boat spent the summer moored at Edwards Boat Service, so we kids spent a lot of time on the little beach in front of the snack bar. I remember loving the smell of the marina. I never gave a thought to the pools of rainbow-colored oil on the surface of the water around the pier. It was just part of boating. Now I know it was not good for the lake or the wildlife or for us.
Our family’s earliest known association with Camp Rich was when my grandparents honeymooned there in 1924, I think. I never heard about the dance floor and all that. Maybe they never left their room….?
As mentioned earlier, I distinctly recall the dances on Friday nights, and the jukebox (there were three that I know of: here, the Burger Bar in Ski Run Center – where Shorty, missing a finger, used to ‘chase us away’ – (OLS is correct: 3 plays for a quarter on all of them), and at Little Mac’s (the north end of Sprouts, but narrow & perpendicular to 50, with 6 stools and several little tables, but always jammed at STHS [middle school now] lunchtime) – – we bypassed the SnowFlake then as it did not have one. . .
Pinballs: the bowling alley had several, and some of us would “rack up” games (40, 50, +, etc.) and sell them to visitors when we wanted to ‘move on’ out. . .
Know Bears & Garry Bowen, Thank you both so much for your stories about old Tahoe. Know Bears, I could just picture you and your family water skiing on one of those glass like Tahoe mornings on the lake. I had a pair of home made water skis myself that a family who stayed at our motel made for me.
I can almost hear that big v-8 burbeling in the water! Nothin’ like carvin’ some turns on flat water on Lake Tahoe!!!
Garry, I was hopin’ you would jump in here, knowing you’ve been around here now for many a moon! Yes, I was hooked on pinball and then slot cars, mostly around the Ski Run area. Yeah I can still hear that loud “pop” as you racked up a free game from your points.
Anybody else got some memories of old Tahoe? To both of you, thanks for the classic stuff! Stay well, OLS
Thanks again, Bill for the photos of Camp Rich. One summer, when I got mad at my Dad and didn’t want to work another summer in our restaurant, Rick Hydrick and I worked for Max Edwards at the marina and pumped gas and rented boats to the summer visitors. Best summer I ever spent. Max would let us take out a Correct Craft after work and we would ski over to Emerald Bay and beyond before dark. I remember all the spots poited out by Gary and OLS, but let’s not forget Chub’s Billiards next to Tahoe Bowl. Also the best french fries were at the bowling alley run by Bep. Anyone remember the batting cages and recreation area where the Inn by the Lake now resides? Lots of quarters in those batting cages. Still can’t hit a curve ball, oh well. Tahoe was the best place to grow up that I could ever imagine.
Dennis Cocking, Oh yeah, the batting cages! There were 3 or was it 2 (?) mechanical creepy robots that would hurl balls at you. This was located behind what was later to become Sambos resturaunt on 50.One robot was fast pitch, the other more of a slow pitch.
Chubs Billiards was interesting as it was right next door to the police station, all under the same roof with a shared bathroom. In your best Eddie Haskel voice as you bump into officer Ed Gould in the bathroom you would say, “Nice evening, sir”,with a big smile. (This building is where Nel’s Hardware is now.)
I worked one summer” at the small marina over at Homewood, trying to refinish the teak deck of the old wooden Sahara boat that was used to take out the big name entertainers of the day. A great summer to be sure. I think the west shore, if I decide to move from So. Shore, is where I’ll wind up.
I have to agree Dennis, Tahoe was a great place to grow up!!! I ain’t leavin’! I’ll hold on to this place like a crawdad clamped on to your finger! Take care, OLS