Lake Tahoe History

Meeks Bay Memories

Sierra Maritime Publications offers two great books on Lake Tahoe's maritime history: Tahoe City Yesterdays, and Meeks Bay Memories, both by Carol Van Etten. Printed in black and white with modest-quality photographs, they are not coffee-table books paint a rich picture of life around the lake in the early part of the century. These books are not available through Amazon.com, but the Sierra Maritime site includes ordering information. You can also find them at many bookstores in the Lake Tahoe area.

Stopping Time

Starting with a variety of nineteenth-century photographs, the authors have provided over fifty comparative photographs representing a visual document of the evolving landscape within the Tahoe basin. Lake Tahoe attracted tourists in droves in the late nineteenth century, but the logging industry wrought extensive damage to the land.

Stopping Time confronts issues that have come to the fore in the late twentieth century—how we use the land, how we perceive the landscape, and what our perceptions mean for the future. The notion of an “ideal landscape” is explored in Elizabeth Raymond’s informative essay, and how that notion itself has evolved since the nineteenth century.

Photographs of Lake Tahoe in quieter times.

Tahoe City Yesterdays

Sierra Maritime Publications offers two great books on Lake Tahoe's maritime history: Tahoe City Yesterdays, and Meeks Bay Memories, both by Carol Van Etten. Printed in black and white with modest-quality photographs, they are not coffee-table books paint a rich picture of life around the lake in the early part of the century. These books are not available through Amazon.com, but the Sierra Maritime site includes ordering information. You can also find them at many bookstores in the Lake Tahoe area.

Tahoe Heritage

This work may be of value to those interested in the history of Lake Tahoe, especially for the story of the transition of the lake from a lumber enterprise to a haven from the hustle and bustle of the outside world.

Tahoe Place Names

Lake Tahoe is full of places with odd names. If you're curious about where the names come from, this is the place to find out.

Tahoe: From Timber Barons to Ecologists

We have come to love the West too much, and Lake Tahoe is a preeminent example of the cost of our endearment. The region annually attracts millions of visitors, more than any other scenic area of similar size in the United States. Runaway development to accommodate crowds has resulted in an alarming rate of environmental deterioration. Yet unprecedented recent efforts to protect the long-term ecological health of Tahoe provide hope for the future.

Douglas H. Strong tells the environmental story of the Tahoe Basin from its use by the indigenous Washoe to the present. To whom does Tahoe belong and how should the area be used? These fundamental questions receive widely differing answers: some favor private ownership and free enterprise, others insist that major portions of the basin should be set aside in parks and reserves, and still others advocate controlled economic growth with an emphasis on protecting the environment. Strong’s extensively researched environmental history examines the struggle among these contending forces. Their efforts, failures, and accomplishments provide valuable lessons for those who care about the use of America’s natural wonders.