Incline Village, Nev. ? Long before today’s jet set discovered Lake Tahoe, the strange doings at George Whittell’s “castle” were the stuff of legend.

Old-timers still tell stories about the all-night poker games with baseball great Ty Cobb, the weeklong parties with showgirls, and the lion and tiger that strolled among partygoers.

They talk about the time Whittell hopped on a horse to chase naked guests and the night a reveler sat in a chair for hours before anyone noticed he was dead.

The Thunderbird Lodge was the flamboyant real estate magnate’s summer playpen until he died in 1969 at age 87.

The granite-faced, lakeside retreat had never been open to the public until April, when a land deal transferred ownership to the nonprofit Thunderbird Lodge Preservation Society. Docent-led tours are now available every Wednesday and Thursday through Oct. 31. Sunday tours are offered in the summer.

The Thunderbird Lodge is five miles south of Incline Village, which was once also part of Whittell’s Lake Tahoe holdings. They totaled more than 40,000 acres and covered virtually all of the lakeshore on the Nevada side.

The lodge ranks among the most luxurious, historic homes at Lake Tahoe, including Vikingsholm at Emerald Bay and the Ehrman Mansion at Sugar Pine Point State Park, historians say. The homes are reminders of a bygone era when prominent San Francisco Bay area families spent summers at opulent Tahoe estates.

Whittell, based in Woodside, Calif., spared no expense. About 100 workers built his three-story, French chateau and other stone structures from 1936 to 1939 at a cost of $300,000. Today it’s worth $3.6 million.

Designed by Reno architect Frederic DeLongchamps, the Castle as it also was known features masonry and iron and woodwork by top Italian-American, Norwegian and American Indian craftsmen.

From its perch on a forested, rocky promontory on the northeast shore, it offers a spectacular panorama of the lake famous for its clear blue waters.

	Docent-led tours of George Whittell’s Thunderbird Lodge will be available from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. every Wednesday and Thursday through Oct. 31 and Sundays in the summer.Tours are by reservation only and cost $22 per adult and $12 for children under 12. Reservations can be made by phoning 1-800-GO-TAHOE.For more information, call the Thunderbird Lodge Preservation Society at (775) 832-8750 or check online at www.thunderbirdlodge.org.

“It’s the most fabulous view of Lake Tahoe,” says Harriet Burgess, president of the San Francisco-based American Land Conservancy, which helped arrange the lodge’s transfer to public ownership.

“The Thunderbird Lodge has it all: an unparalleled view, stunning architecture and George Whittell’s legendary history. I’ll bet it becomes one of the top tourist attractions at Lake Tahoe.”

Tours include the 6,000-square-foot main lodge with its steep-pitched roof, and the 600-foot underground tunnel that leads to the boathouse where Whittell kept his speedy, torpedo-shaped “Thunderbird” yacht.

Visitors also will see the infamous “Card House,” where Whittell played poker with Ty Cobb and others, and reportedly lost $100,000 in a single night. Cobb had a home on Tahoe’s east shore.

Tours also will visit “The Dungeon,” a cell-like area off the tunnel where rowdy guests were confined.

Whittell was an animal lover who brought wilder guests, including a lion named Bill and a baby elephant named Mingo, to the Thunderbird Lodge each summer. Some were even allowed to roam free on the estate.

Whittell is credited with preserving what today is the largest chunk of unspoiled land at Tahoe.

Most of his original holdings on Lake Tahoe’s east shore are now owned by the U.S. Forest Service and Nevada park system.