El Dorado County Chamber of Commerce, Lake Tahoe Division Records

The Lake Tahoe Division of the El Dorado County Chamber of Commerce was organized June 14, 1938 by a group of south Lake Tahoe businessmen and women as a branch of the El Dorado County Chamber of Commerce. Formal incorporation took place November 10, 1938. As stated in the bylaws, the purpose of the group was to advance the commercial and industrial interests of the county and to work for the up building and betterment of the several communities within the county boundaries by cooperating with other organizations and individuals in an endeavor to serve and protect mutual interests. Charter members included Ralph T. Plimpton, H.F. Lewright, Ralph King, Eldred H. Bray, O.R. Martin, Louis C. Krueger, John Keller, Ray Walters, John S. Lawson, Anna M. Martin, and A.W. Lampson. Although not stated in the bylaws, homeowners were also invited to become members and provide financial and moral support.

Among the initial projects of the Lake Tahoe Branch was a successful lobbying effort with the California State Highway Commission to have a maintenance crew and equipment kept at Lake Tahoe during the winter season and to make improvements on Highway 50 between Placerville and Tahoe (hereafter referred to as "the lake"). The Chamber also formed committees to work for the construction of an air field at the lake, to promote the lake through "radio travelogues" and other advertising media, to collect data on damage done by the high water level of 1938, to ask the California Department of Fish and Game to extend the fishing season at Tahoe an additional thirty days in September, to correct unsatisfactory mail delivery during the winter at Tahoe, to alleviate the menace of the many trees to highway traffic between the "Y" and Camp Richardson, and to obtain adequate fire equipment for the district.

In August 1938, the Chamber began to investigate ways of obtaining a building which they might use for meetings and as a tourist center. The Chamber held a Buck Stew on October 15, 1938 to help raise funds and celebrate the purchase of a building at Lawson's Resort, and with these funds, donations from businesses at the lake and in Sacramento, and a mortgage from the Bank of America, the Chamber completed the purchase by the end of that year. The records in this collection indicate that the Chamber was unable to raise enough additional funds to meet its mortgage payments and on August 19, 1941 the Chamber legally assigned the building to members Ralph King and John E. Keller to avoid foreclosure. Although the records in this collection date only to 1942, the Chamber continued to operate to the present time.