article

"Tahoe" redirects here. For the SUV, see Chevrolet Tahoe.
Lake Tahoe is a freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada, on the border between the U.S. states of California and Nevada, near Carson City. Approximately two-thirds of the shoreline is in California. The area is home to a number of ski resorts.

Geography

Lake Tahoe is one of the deepest (1645 feet/501 m), largest (192 sq. mi./497 km²) ¹, and highest (6229 feet/1898 m) lakes in the United States. Only Oregon's Crater Lake is deeper at 1930 feet (588 m).

Although for much of Tahoe's perimeter, highways run within sight of the lake shore, some important parts of the California shoreline now lie within state parks or are protected by the United States Forest Service. Lake Tahoe is about 22 mi (35 km) long and 12 mi (19 km) wide and has 72 mi (116 km) of shoreline and a surface area of 191 square miles or 495 square kilometers.

The Lake Tahoe Basin was formed by geologic block (normal) faulting about 2 to 3 million years ago. A geologic block fault is a fracture in the Earth's crust causing blocks of land to move up or down. Uplifted blocks created the Carson Range on the east and the Sierra Nevada on the west. Down-dropped blocks created the Lake Tahoe Basin in between. Some of the highest peaks of the Lake Tahoe Basin that formed during this process were Freel Peak at 10,891 ft (3320 m), Monument Peak at 10,067 ft (3068 m) (the present Heavenly Valley Ski Area), Pyramid Peak at 9,983 ft (3043 m) (in the Desolation Wilderness), and Mount Tallac at 9,735 ft (2967 m).

Snowmelt filled the southern and lowest part of the basin, forming the ancestral Lake Tahoe, with rain and runoff adding additional water. Modern Lake Tahoe was shaped and landscaped by the scouring glaciers during the Ice Age (the Great Ice Age began a million or more years ago). Many streams flow into Lake Tahoe, but the lake is drained only by the Truckee River, which flows northeast through Reno, Nevada and into Pyramid Lake in Nevada.

Mean annual precipitation ranges from over 55 inches/year or 140 cm in watersheds on the west side of the basin to about 26 inches/year or 67 cm near the lake on the east side of the basin. Most of the precipitation falls as snow between November and April, although rainstorms combined with rapid snowmelt account for the largest floods. There is a pronounced annual runoff of snowmelt in late spring and early summer, the timing of which varies from year to year. In some years, summertime monsoonal storms from the Great Basin bring intense rainfall, especially to high elevations on the east side of the basin. As the climate in the northern Sierra warms, hydrologists anticipate that an increasing fraction of the precipitation in basin will fall as rain rather than snow.

Vegetation in the basin is dominated by a mixed conifer forest of Jeffrey pine (P. Jeffreyi), lodgepole pine (P. murrayana), white fir (Abies concolor), and red fir (A. magnifica). The basin also contains significant areas of wet meadows and riparian areas, dry meadows, brush fields (with Arctostaphylos and Ceanothus) and rock outcrop areas, especially at higher elevations. Ceanothus is capable of fixing nitrogen, but mountain alder (Alnus tenuifolia), which grows along many of the basin’s streams, springs and seeps, fixes far greater quantities, and contributes measurably to nitrate-N concentrations in some small streams.

Soils of the basin are derived primarily from andesitic volcanic rocks and granodiorite, with minor areas of metamorphic rock. Some of the valley bottoms and lower hillslopes are mantled with glacial moraines, or glacial outwash material derived from the parent rock. Cryopsamments, Cryumbrepts, rockland, rock outcrops and rubble and stoney colluvium account for over 70% of the land area in the basin (see USA soil taxonomy). The basin soils (in the < 2 mm fraction) are generally 65-85% sand (0.05–2.0 mm).

The south shore is dominated by the lake's largest city, South Lake Tahoe, California, which neighbors Stateline, Nevada. Tahoe City, California is located on the lake's northwest shore.

The lake's position is 39°N, 120°W.

History

Tahoe’s history began 2–3 million years ago when the faults that created the Carson Range simultaneously molded the Tahoe Basin. Eruptions from the extinct volcano Mt. Pluto formed a dam on the north side. The Pleistocene (Ice Age) molded the basin to its current form followed by drainage from ice and snow which filled the lake.

The area around Lake Tahoe was originally inhabited by the Washoe tribe of Native Americans. Lake Tahoe was the center and heart of Washoe Indian territory, including the upper valleys of the Walker, Carson, and Truckee Rivers. They called this area "Da ow a ga", which means "edge of lake". When early pioneers came they mispronounced this word, saying "Da ow", it later evolved into what we call it today, Lake "Tahoe".. Lt. John C. Frémont and Kit Carson were the first non-indigenous people to see Lake Tahoe. It was Fremont's 2nd exploratory expedition. On February 14, 1844, while searching for the Bonaventura river he first sighted the lake from Red Lake Peak in what is now the Carson Pass. After arriving at Sutter's Fort he designated it Lake Bonpland, in honor of the French explorer and botanist Aimé Jacques Alexandre Bonpland. John Calhoun Johnson, Sierra explorer and founder of "Johnson's Cutoff" (now Hwy 50), was the first white-man to see Meeks Bay and from a peak above the lake he named "Fallen Leaf Lake, California" after his Indian guide. His first employment in the west was in the government service, carrying the mail on snowshoes from Placerville to Nevada City, during which time he gave the name of Lake Bigler to that beautiful body of water now known as Lake Tahoe in honor of California’s governor John Bigler. In 1853 William Eddy, the surveyor general of California, identified Tahoe as Lake Bigler. In 1862 the U.S. department of interior first introduced the name Tahoe which continued a debate about naming the lake, in which both names were used until well into the next decade. It wasn’t until 1945 that it was finally and officially named Lake Tahoe. The compromise to partition Tahoe with 2/3 to California and 1/3 to Nevada was reached when California became a state. Putting the state line right through the middle of the lake and then at 39 degrees north latitude, the stateline obliques southeasterly towards the Colorado River. Upon discovery of gold in the South Fork of the American River in 1848, thousands of west-bound gold seekers passed near the basin on their way to the gold fields. European civilization first made its mark in the Lake Tahoe basin with the 1858 discovery of the Comstock Lode, a silver deposit just 15 miles (24 km) to the east in Virginia City, Nevada. From 1858 until about 1890, logging in the basin supplied large timbers to shore up the underground workings of the Comstock mines. The logging was so extensive that almost all of the native forest was cut. In 1864, Tahoe City was founded as a resort community for Virginia City, the first recognition of the basin’s potential as a destination resort area.

Public appreciation of the Tahoe basin grew, and during the 1912, 1913, and 1918 Congressional sessions, unsuccessful efforts were made to designate the basin as a national park. During the first half of this century, development around the lake consisted of a few vacation homes. The post-World War II population and building boom, followed by construction of gambling casinos in the Nevada part of the basin during the mid-1950’s, and completion of the interstate highway links for the 1960 Squaw Valley Olympics, resulted in a dramatic increase in development within the basin. From 1960 to 1980, the permanent resident population increased from about 10,000 to greater than 50,000, and the summer population grew from about 10,000 to about 90,000. Since the 1980s, development has slowed somewhat due to land use controls.

Limnology and water quality

In spite of land-use planning and export of treated sewage effluent from the basin, the lake is becoming increasingly eutrophic (richer in nutrients), with primary productivity increasing by more than 5% annually, and clarity decreasing at an average rate of 0.25 meters per year. Fine sediment, much of it resulting from land disturbance in the basin, accounts for about half of the loss in clarity.

Until the early 1980s, nutrient limitation studies showed that primary productivity in the lake was nitrogen-limited. Now, after a half-century of accelerated nitrogen input (much of it from direct atmospheric deposition), the lake is phosphorus-limited. Because the volume of the lake is so large (156 km3) and its hydraulic residence time so long (about 650 years), its eutrophication may be essentially irreversible.

Lake Tahoe never freezes. Since 1970, it has mixed to a depth of at least 400 m a total of 6 or 7 times. Dissolved oxygen is relatively high from top to bottom.

Analysis of the temperature records in Lake Tahoe has shown that the lake warmed (between 1969 and 2002) at an average rate of 0.015 degrees C per year. The warming is caused primarily by increasing air temperatures, and secondarily by increasing downward long-wave radiation. Both of these factors are associated with global warming. The warming trend is reducing the frequency of deep mixing in the lake, and may have important effects on water clarity and nutrient cycling.

Since the 1960s, the Lake’s food web and zooplankton populations have undergone major changes. In 1963-65, opossum shrimp (Mysis relicta) were introduced to enhance the food supply for the introduced kokanee salmon (Onchorhynchus nerka). The shrimp began feeding on the Lake’s cladocerans (Daphnia and Bosmina), and their populations virtually disappeared by 1971. The shrimp provide a food resource for salmon and trout, but also compete with juvenile fish for zooplankton. Since the 1970s, the cladoceran populations have somewhat recovered, but not to former levels.

Lake Tahoe is actually a tributary watershed drainage element within the Truckee River Basin, and its sole outlet is the Truckee River, which continues on to discharge to Pyramid Lake. Because of the sensitivity of Truckee River water quality (involving two protected species, the cui-ui sucker fish and the Lahontan cutthroat trout), this drainage basin has been studied extensively. The primary investigations were stimulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, who funded the development of the DSSAM model to analyze water quality below Lake Tahoe.

Environmental protection

Lake Tahoe has suffered from much use. Until recently construction on the banks of the Lake had been, more or less, under the control of wealthy real estate developers. Construction activities had been linked to a 'clouding' of the amazingly blue waters of the Lake. Currently, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency is regulating construction along the shoreline (and has won two Federal Supreme Court battles over recent decisions). Many residents are enraged by the laws that they have passed, especially those in the Tahoe Lakefront Homeowners Association.

Since 1980, the Lake Tahoe Interagency Monitoring Program (LTIMP) has been measuring stream discharge and concentrations of nutrients and sediment in up to 10 tributary streams in the Lake Tahoe Basin, California-Nevada. The objectives of the LTIMP are to acquire and disseminate the water quality information necessary to support science-based environmental planning and decision making in the basin. The LTIMP is a cooperative program with support from 12 federal and state agencies with interests in the Tahoe Basin. This data set, together with more recently acquired data on urban runoff water quality, is being used by the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board to develop a program (mandated by the Clean Water Act) to limit the flux of nutrients and fine sediment to the Lake.

Tourist activities

Much of the area surrounding Lake Tahoe is devoted to the tourism industry and there are many restaurants, ski slopes and casinos catering to visitors.

Winter sports

During ski season, thousands of people from all over California, including Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area, flock to the slopes for some of the best skiing in the world. Lake Tahoe, in addition to its panoramic beauty, is well known for its blizzards.

Some of the major ski areas in Tahoe include:

Scattered throughout Tahoe are public and private sled parks. Some, such as Granlibakken are equipped with rope tows to help sledders get up the hill.

Many ski areas in Tahoe also have Snow tubing, such as Squaw Valley. Snow tubing is popular among people who are interested in alternative sports. Throughout Tahoe, Cross Country Skiing, Snowmobile riding, and Snowshoeing are also popular, thus there are many trails for them.

Water sports

During the summer, the lake is popular for water sports and beach activities. The two cities most identified with the Lake Tahoe tourist area are South Lake Tahoe, California and the smaller Stateline, Nevada; smaller centers on the northern shoreline include Tahoe City and Kings Beach.

Boating, the primary activity in Tahoe in the summer, is known worldwide. There are lakefront restaurants all over the Lake, most equipped with docks and buoys (See the restaurants section) There are all sorts of boating events, such as sailboat racing, firework shows over the lake, guided cruises, and more. Lake Tahoe also has its own Coast Guard

List of Tahoe Marinas:

  • Camp Richardson
  • Homewood High and Dry Marina
  • Lakeside
  • Sierra Boat Company
  • Ski Run Marina
  • Tahoe City Marina
  • Tahoe Keys Marina
  • Timber Cove Marina

List of Lake Tahoe Cruise Ships:

  • M.S. Dixie
  • Tahoe Gal
  • Tahoe Queen

Hiking and mountain biking

There are hundreds of hiking/mountain biking trails all around the lake. They range in size, length, difficulty, and popularity. One of the most famous of Tahoe's trails is the Tahoe Rim Trail, a 165 mile trail that circumnavigates the lake.

Gambling

Gambling is legal on the Nevada side of the lake, the resort area of Lake Tahoe attracts all kinds of fun seekers, year round. In the town of Stateline, near Heavenly Mountain Resort, there are myriads of enormous casinos filled all year long.

See also: List of Tahoe Casinos

Miscellaneous facts

Although Lake Tahoe is a natural lake, it is also used for water storage by the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District (TCID). The lake level is controlled by a dam at the lake's only outlet, the Truckee River, at Tahoe City.

The Reno/Tahoe International Airport in Reno, Nevada and the Chevrolet Tahoe SUV were named after the lake.

The North Shore features the Cal Neva Resort (once owned by Frank Sinatra) which has a marked state line running through it (even through its swimming pool).

Peaks and Mountains

Mt. Tallac

(9,735') Tallac means "Great Mountain," and is the only mountain that has a Washoe name. The original name for the mountain south of Emerald Bay was "Tahlac" which is thought to be more of a common noun than a proper name. White settlers referred to Tallac as "Crystal Mountain" on their maps in 1873, but it soon came to be known as "Tallac Peak" a name that appeared on a map in 1881.

Mt. Pluto

(8,610') Now serving as the backbone of Northstar-at-Tahoe Ski Area, Mt. Pluto was one of the last volcanoes in Tahoe to erupt and first appeared on an 1874 map. Pluto is the name of the Roman god of the underworld and is named for plutonic rock, evidence of volcanic activity.

Rubicon Peak

(9,183') Overlooking D.L. Bliss State Park at 9183', Rubicon Peak's name is taken from the Rubicon River which Julius Caesar crossed in 49 BC. The phrase "to cross the Rubicon" means to completely commit oneself and is an audacious and auspicious name for this peak, whose first map appearance was in 1881.

Genoa Peak

(9,150') On the East Shore, Genoa Peak was named after Columbus' birthplace, because a cove in the mountain reminded Elder Orson Hyde, the first probate judge in western Utah (when Nevada was still part of the Utah Territory), of the Genoa harbor. A naming trend for many of the area mountains was based on the names of early settlers, ranchers and homesteaders of Tahoe.

Freel Peak

(10,881') The highest mountain in the Tahoe Sierra, Freel Peak, southeast of South Lake Tahoe, was named by William Eimbeck of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1876 for squatter James Washington Freel, a native of Illinois, a miner and rancher, who settled at the foot of the mountain. Before Eimbeck named it, Freel Peak was called "Bald Mountain" and "Sand Mountain" and was part of "Job's Group of Mountains." Nearby Job's Sister is the second highest mountain in Tahoe at 10,873'.

Mt. Rose

(10,778') It is not known with certainty how the third highest peak in Tahoe received its name, but the North Shore's Mt. Rose is named for either Jacob H. Rose, an early Carson City pioneer, or Rose Hickman, who was a friend of Washoe City newspaper editor H.S. Ham. The Mt. Rose Highway is the highest year-round, open Sierra pass at 8,900'.

Ellis Peak

(8,740') Ellis Peak, which stands behind Homewood Mountain Resort and about four miles due west of Tahoma, takes its name from Jock Ellis who had a dairy, then a sheep ranch in the area. The name appeared in 1881.

Scott Peak

(8,289') Scott Peak, as in Scott chair at Alpine Meadows Ski Area, is believed to be named for the Scott family who settled in Squaw Valley in 1880, also ran a dairy and later built Deer Park Springs Inn. Scott Peak appeared in 1955.

Ward Peak

(8,637') In the vicinity of Scott Peak and in the path of the Pacific Crest Trail is Ward Peak, named for either Ward Rush who on April 1, 1874 homesteaded 160 acres in the area or John Ward, a former silver miner who lived in the area.

Dick's Peak

(9,974') One such unique person was Captain Richard "Dick" Barter of which Dick's Peak in Desolation Wilderness Area is named after. Barter was also known as "the Hermit of Emerald Bay," where he lived. Besides his role as caretaker and craftsman, he was a lover of Lake Tahoe and would spend hours drifting in his boat when he wasn't preparing and working on his own grave. His namesake appeared on an 1889 map.

Maggie's Peak

(8,699') Barter took part in the naming of Maggie's Peak as well. Mary McComnell named the southern peak "Fleetfoot Peak" after referring to Barter who said that the peak should be named in honor of the first woman to summit it. She found the peak to be rather romantic and learned it had no name and named it so after her ascent on Sept. 12, 1869. The pair of mountains was also known as "Round Buttons" and the name is most likely related to Mary McConnell.

Jakes Peak

(9,187') Northwest of Emerald Bay, this peak is named for Jeffrey "Jake" Smith and in memory of other persons who died in an avalanche at Alpine Meadows in 1982.

Heavenly Valley

Heavenly Valley is a purely commercial creation.

Duane Bliss Peak

(8,729') Just as D.L. Bliss State Park on the West Shore, this mountain is named after the Lake Tahoe lumberman who co-founded the Carson and Tahoe Lumber and Fluming Co and cut down most of Tahoe's timberlands, including 750 million board feet of lumber and 500,000 cords of wood in a period of 28 years. He also built the 200 passenger steamer Tahoe, the "Queen of the Lake."

Footnotes

  1. While relatively large, Lake Tahoe is only a fraction of the size of the Great Lakes, which dwarf all other lakes in the U.S.

Selected references

  • * Tahoe.com - The naming of Tahoe's mountains
  • Byron, E. R., and C. R. Goldman, 1989. Land use and water quality in tributary streams of Lake Tahoe, California-Nevada. Jour. Environ. Qual. 18: 84-88.
  • Chang, C. C. Y., J. S. Kuwabara, and S. P. Pasilis. 1992. Phosphate and iron limitation of phytoplankton biomass in Lake Tahoe. Can. Jour. Fish. and Aquatic Sci. 49: 1206-1215.
  • Coats, R. N., and C. R. Goldman, 2001. Patterns of nitrogen transport in streams of the Lake Tahoe basin, California-Nevada. Water Resour. Res. 37: 405-415.
  • Coats, R. N., J. Perez-Losada, G. Schladow, R. Richards and C. R. Goldman. 2006. The Warming of Lake Tahoe. Climatic Change (In Press).
  • Gardner, J., V., A. M. Larry, and J. H. Clarke. 1998. The bathymetry of Lake Tahoe, California-Nevada. U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 98-509.
  • Goldman, C. R., A. Jassby, and T. Powell. 1989. Interannual fluctuations in primary production: meteorological forcing at two subalpine lakes. Limnol. Oceanogr. 34: 310-323.
  • Goldman, C. R., A. D. Jassby, and S. H. Hackley. 1993. Decadal, interannual, and seasonal variability in enrichment bioassays at Lake Tahoe, California-Nevada, USA. Can.J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 50: 1489-1496.
  • Hatch, L. K., J. E. Reuter, and C. R. Goldman, 2001. Stream phosphorus transport in the Lake Tahoe Basin, 1989-1996. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 69: 63-83.
  • Jassby, A. D., C. R. Goldman, and T. M. Powell. 1992. Trend, seasonality, cycle, and irregular fluctuations in primary productivity at Lake Tahoe, California-Nevada, USA. Hydrobiol. 246: 195-203.
  • Jassby, A. D., J. E. Reuter, R. P. Axler, C. R. Goldman, and S. H. Hackley, 1994. Atmospheric deposition of nitrogen and phosphorus in the annual nutrient load of Lake Tahoe (California-Nevada). Water Resour. Res. 30: 2207-2216.
  • Jassby, A. D., C. R. Goldman and J. E. Reuter. 1995. Long-term change in Lake Tahoe (California-Nevada, U.S.A.) and its relation to atmospheric deposition of algal nutrients. Arch. Hydrobiol. 135: 1-21.
  • Jassby, A. D., C. R. Goldman, J. E. Reuter, and R. C. Richards. 1999. Origins and scale dependence of temporal variability in the transparency of Lake Tahoe, California-Nevada. Limnol. Oceanog. 44: 282-294.
  • Jassby, A., J. Reuter, and C. R. Goldman. 2003. Determining long-term water -quality change in the presence of climate variability: Lake Tahoe (U.S.A.). Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 60: 1452-1461.
  • Leonard, R. L., L. A. Kaplan, J. F. Elder, R. N. Coats, and C. R. Goldman, 1979. Nutrient Transport in Surface Runoff from a Subalpine Watershed, Lake Tahoe Basin, California. Ecological Monographs 49: 281-310.
  • Nagy, M., 2003. Lake Tahoe Basin Framework Study Groundwater Evaluation Lake Tahoe Basin, California and Nevada. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Sacramento, CA.
  • Naslas, G. D., W. W. Miller, R. R. Blank and G. F. Gifford, 1994. Sediment, nitrate, and ammonium in surface runoff from two Tahoe basin soil types. Water Resour. Bull. 30: 409-417.
  • Richards, R. C., C. R. Goldman, E. Byron, and C. Levitan, 1991. The mysids and lake trout of Lake Tahoe: A 25-year history of changes in the fertility, plankton, and fishery of an alpine lake. Am. Fish. Soc. Symp. 9: 30-38.
  • Schuster, S., and M. E. Grismer, 2004. Evaluation of water quality projects in the Lake Tahoe Basin. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment 90: 225-242.

See also

External links

Great Basin | Lake Tahoe | Lakes of California | Lakes of Nevada | Landmarks | Sierra Nevada | Ski areas of California | Ski areas of Nevada | Tourism in California

Тахо (езеро) | Lake Tahoe | Tahoe järv | Lago Tahoe | Lac Tahoe | אגם טאהו | Tahoesjøen | Tahoe

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Lake Tahoe".

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