Nevada Lore Series: The Toeless Hermit of Emerald Bay
Submitted by Kelsey Penrose on Thu, 02/14/2019 - 5:33pm
On Fannette island in the middle of Emerald Bay, the only (official) island in Lake Tahoe, used to live a toeless hermit by the name of Captain Dick “Them’s My Toes” Barter, who some say still haunts Fannette Island to this day.
The island itself has gone through several different names, including Fannette, Baranoff, Coquette, Dead Man’s, Hermit’s and the Emerald Isle.
From 1863 to 1873, an eccentric captain moved to Tahoe from England and took up residence in the bay. He was known as Captain Dick “Them’s My Toes” Barter.
Captain Barter was a retired British sea captain who came to make Tahoe his home when he was hired by the son of a commercial stager named Ben Holladay, who, in 1862 had built a two-story, five-room home in the unoccupied land surrounding Emerald Bay.
Holladay hired Captain Barter to look after the property during the winter, until he could return to his summer home in the easier months of the year.
The reason behind hiring Captain Barter was due to the fact that during the snowstorms of Tahoe during the winter, the only way in or out of Emerald Bay was by boat. For 10 years, Captain Barter looked after the home, and was well liked as the isolated sea captain, who was known to sail almost 20 miles from Emerald Bay to Tahoe City to drink whiskey and converse with his fellow winter Tahoe residents when he felt the need to socialize.
Captain Barter got the nickname “Them’s My Toes” after he was caught in a sudden storm while rowing his boat off Sugar Pine Point.
A gust of wind upset his boat and threw Barter into the water. He was able to get himself back on board after a time in the water, and hypothermia began to set in.
He only survived by tying himself to the boat and waiting out the storm. He made it back, the story goes, by rowing himself against the storm screaming “Richard Barter never surrenders!” over and over again. He was 63 years old.
He made it back to Emerald Bay at dawn. He said that when he returned, he got himself back into the house, and didn’t leave for almost three months, because his feet and one hand were frozen and he couldn’t get back out.
He said that he couldn’t walk on his feet, so he tied small cushions to his knees and crawled around on the ground. He was out long enough that he suffered frostbite in several toes, and amputated them himself.
He earned the nickname from his peculiar affinity of showing off the toes, which he kept, to his guests. On one such case, a reporter from a San Fransisco newspaper spoke to the captain about his harrowing ordeal.
During his recovery, he built a seven-foot miniature man-of-war ship, followed by a full sized boat that weighed four tons, which he launched into Emerald Bay himself.
The reporter was skeptical, the story goes, and couldn’t believe that a man could have undergone such physical labor during a recovery from a near-death experience.
In return, Captain Barter scooted over to a dresser and pulled out a small jewelry box. He opened the box, handed it to the reporter and said, “Them’s My Toes!” And so, a legend was born out of a box of salted, mummified toes.
Whilst on Fannette island, Captain Barter erected his own tomb and chapel in which he told everyone he would one day be buried in.
A bizarre story needs a bizarre end however, and it so happens that despite his hard work, Barter was never laid to rest in the tomb and chapel he built for himself.
In October of 1873, Captain Barter had sailed into town to drink and talk with his friends, and on the way back, a sudden wind came and overturned his boat off Rubicon Point. Pieces of the boat were recovered off the rocks near Emerald Bay, but the Captain’s body was never seen again.
Some say he haunts Fannette Island, where his body was supposed to be laid to rest, but one thing is for certain, Captain Barter was indeed laid to rest in Lake Tahoe, just not in the exact location he had planned.
— The Nevada Lore Series focuses on the legends of Nevada and the surrounding areas that help build our culture, from ancient Washoe stories, to Old West ghostly visions, to modern day urban legends.
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