(Originally published October 2019) We had a happy accident last week – we were Googling (this is a word – Google says it is!) this and that, when we stumbled across Moon Dune House at Lake Tahoe. Moon Dune is a stone house built in the 1930s. So naturally, we had to take a closer look.
The Web site for the house (moondune.com) was interesting and provided verification that the house was indeed built by Native American stonemasons as well as the family. Now, that has to be a first – a joint venture between a family and Native American stonemasons. All the more reason to go see this beauty in person!
Always up for a road trip, we set one fine Friday morning to go see this house ourselves. It was late fall and still warm enough that we did not need heavy sweaters or coats. Best of all, the summer tourist season was over, so the roads around the Lake were relatively free of traffic.
We knew we were there when we saw that glorious gate protecting the property as it has done for so many years. We looked at the chimney on the north side of the house – yep, sure looked like the work of Native American stonemasons.
We then walked down to the beach and were able to see the house up close and personal. It’s even more beautiful in person than in the photographs and the beach provides the perfect setting for this home!
The thing that sets this house apart from other homes built by the Native American stonemasons is the window treatment. All of the other stone buildings created by the Native American stonemasons have keystones for the windows and, sometimes, the door frames. Not this house. No, from what we could see, the windows and doors were framed in wood and the family inserted the stones they had collected on their travels around the wood frames.
We could clearly see the transition from those stones set by the stonemasons to those stones set by the family, which adds extra charm to the house. The pieces of Onyx and Turquoise interspersed among the other stones are especially striking!
Stepping back for a better look, we noticed a small stone chimney jutting out to the side of the house. Oh, what was this? We walked back up the beach to the front of the house. Next to Moon Dunes was a fenced property – the fence being too tall for those of us who are vertically challenged! Fortunately, not all of our party was vertically challenged, so we were able to get a picture of small stone structure inside the fence.
We decided to call this building the bonus house! It was either a small house or cabin, a perfectly sized building. From the construction, it appears that it was built at the same time as Moon Dune. Why, though, was it off to one side and separated by fencing? Good question and while we don’t know the answer to that question, we do have our own theory. We think that, perhaps, this small building was an outbuilding for Moon Dune and over the years, the lot was divided into two parcels. One parcel has Moon Dune on it while the other parcel has this small stone building on it. That’s our thinking. If anybody knows the real story, please share – we’d love to hear it!
We thought that, having spent so much time at Lake Tahoe searching for the homes and churches built by the Native American stonemasons, we had found them all. And we were wrong.
Finding Moon Dunes showed us that the Lake is big enough and wooded enough that there may well be more stone buildings around Lake Tahoe that we’ve yet to discover. We’ve heard rumors that Native American stonemasons from Carson City built two, large stone houses in Tahoe City and Rubicon Bay. Apparently, the house in Rubicon Bay is on the beach and can be seen from the lakeside.
Winter’s coming and we probably won’t do much exploring until April or so of next year. In the meantime, we’ll use what technological resources are available to us to determine if we can find more of these stone beauties at Lake Tahoe. Of course, if anybody happens to know where to find a stone house or two of Native American construction and wants to share that information with us, we wouldn’t say no!
