The Viking House In Lake Tahoe

Vikingsholm is a 38 room mansion that lies on the shore of Emerald Bay at Lake Tahoe in the El Dorado county of California

. It's a place that is listed in the National register of Historic places and is located on the western shore of Lake Tahoe.

It was built as a summer home by Mrs Lora Josephine Knight in 1929, who chose the rugged mountain scenery and sheer granite cliffs that are around the Emerald Bay because they reminded her of Fjords in Norway, which is why she chose a Scandinavian theme for the building. A year before construction she and her architect had travelled to Scandinavia which helped them gather ideas for the mansion. It was originally meant to start construction during the winter period of the same year but they didn't do anything to it. There were two hundred workers that were brought over to Emerald Bay and worked on the mansion. Some parts of the building contain no nails, pegs or spikes due to the old fashioned construction techniques and also most of the building was made from material that can (or could) be found at Lake Tahoe.

Lora Josephine Knight is often assumed to be of wealthy Scandinavian descent, mainly because of this building, but that is far from the truth as she was actually of English descent. She was born in 1864 and was one of four daughter and one son, her father was a lawyer who later on in life became very successful in fortune.

After her death the house was sold to Lawrence Holland, a rancher from Nevada. Then to a lumberman from Placerville, Harvey West. He was also a philanthropist so he had negotiated with the state of California for the property and land to become if they paid half. Seeing as the state thought it was one of the best examples of Scandinavian buildings they have ever seen in America, especially as there are rarely any other structures like it in America, they paid for it and made it part of the Harvey West Unit of the Emerald Bay State Park, a National Natural Landmark.

Inside the building you will see many great examples Scandinavian pieces of work, from antiques to reproductions. On the second floor of the mansion you will find reproduced pieces of art from the 18th and 19th which kind of give it a medieval feel to the building.

You can tour the building which is open seven days a week from memorial Day weekend until the end of September. First tours of the day start at 10.30am and the last tours start at 4.30pm, the maximum number of people on a tour is 30.

Vikingsholm has possibly the best view of Emerald Bay if you look out one of the windows of this fantastic castle you can see the glamorous sparkling lake so it is no wonder why people flock in droves to this area staying close by in their Lake Tahoe vacation rentals.

by: VacationRentalPeople

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