Sugar Pine Point State Park

Sugar Pine Point State Park, on Lake Tahoe's western shore near Homewood, preserves layers of local history within a district of about 10.5 acres. The oldest standing building is a roughly 15-foot-square cabin of hand-hewn pine logs, built in 1872 by William Phipps, the first permanent settler recorded on the western shore. An offshore Native American bedrock mortar site and old roads also survive. Later, banker Isaias W. Hellman acquired the land and had a three-story Victorian frame and stone mansion completed around 1903-04, along with a tank house and coach barn. By 1913 the estate was regarded as the finest private estate in the High Sierra. The Ehrman family, Hellman's descendants, used it as a summer residence until the State of California acquired it in 1965. The property was listed for its pioneer, Native American and estate-era associations and its architecture, and it now serves as a park and museum.