In the 1890s, the decline in silver mining on the Comstock in Nevada reduced demand for lumber from the Lake Tahoe basin, and local businessman Duane L. Bliss, owner of Carson and Tahoe Lumber and Fluming Company, turned to tourism at Tahoe City. He dismantled his operation at Glenbrook, shipped the company's buildings across the lake on barges, built a railroad line to the pier at Commons Beach, began construction on the Tahoe Tavern, and built the two-story Tahoe Mercantile on the pier at Tahoe Commons. Many people opposed this encroachment on public lands, and local lumberman Walter Bickford even won a lawsuit against Bliss, but Bliss continued his operations at Tahoe City until his death in 1907, when his son William took over the family businesses. In 1937, a mysterious fire leveled the Tahoe Mercantile, the local post office, and the Cedar Log Saloon. The Tahoe Commons buildings were never rebuilt, and the Tahoe Tavern later faced growing competition from newer resorts, fell into disrepair, and was demolished in 1964.