History of the big bonanza

by Dan De Quille

There are several fine bays around the lake, the largest and most beautiful of which is that known as Emerald Bay, which is over two miles long. This bay is about four hundred yards wide at its mouth, but rapidly widens inland. It is completely land-locked and is surrounded with timbered hills, many of which are covered with rugged and picturesque rocks, which tower among and above the pines, and other evergreen-trees. There are some small islands in the bay which add much to its beauty, and on all sides are to be obtained fine views of immense rocky cañons. Eagle Cañon contains some vast piles of rocks, with clumps of pines scattered here and there among them, and a whole day might be spent in rambling through it without exhausting its many beauties. Cave Rock, on the eastern shore of the lake is a huge pyramid of granite which occupies a very picturesque position and which contains on one side a cavern of considerable extent. In the neighborhood of this rock tall and beautiful pines are seen quite down to the shore of the lake.

The view from what is called Rocky Point, on the eastern shore, looking toward Cave Rock is also very fine. Another fine view in the direction of Cave Rock is obtained from the Sierra Rocks. The view to the northward from Sierra Rocks, toward Rocky Point, is one in which are found several picturesque tree-covered points of rocky land, extending far out into the waters of the lake. Indeed, there are new beauties to be found in all directions.

VIEWS ON LAKE TAHOE.

Zephyr Cave, also on the eastern shore of the lake is a most romantic spot and the scenery is such as to set the artist thinking of his pencils the moment he enters the little bay. The Shakespeare-Rock, plainly visible from the Glenbrook House, on the southern shore of the lake, is so called on account of there being in the rugged outlines of its face a striking resemblance to the features of the immortal poet. All who visit the lake desire first of all to see this rock. Like many other things of the kind, there is much in the position from which it is viewed, and not a little in the imaginative powers of the person viewing it. The water of the lake is so transparent that pebbles on its bottom can be distinctly seen at the depth of fifty or sixty feet. When out upon the water in a boat during a time when it is perfectly calm, one seems suspended in mid-air. It is not easy to swim in the waters of the lake. Owing to the great altitude and consequent decrease of atmospheric pressure, the water is much less dense then the water of a lake or stream at the level of the sea. On account of this lack of density and buoyancy, the bodies of persons drowned in the lake never rise to the surface. Many have been drowned in Lake Tahoe, but a body has never yet been recovered.

Leaving the lake and rambling off into the surrounding country, much that is grand and romantic is to be found. From the western summit is to be had a magnificent panoramic view of the lake and the valley or basin in which it is situated, with all the surrounding mountains. The tourist may extend his rambles above Lake Tahoe to Fallen Leaf Lake, one of the most beatiful[beatiful] little lakes in the mountains. Cascade Lake and other small lakes will also be found worthy of a visit. About the shores of Lake Tahoe will frequently be encountered the huts of the Washoe Indians. They are generally found in some romantic spot, and, with their uncouth occupants, add not a little to the picturesqueness of the region. Some of the old saw-mills are also of a rather unusual[unusual] style and will attract the attention of the tourist and the artist.

At “Yank’s Station,” on the Placerville road, a short distance from the shore of the lake, is to be seen a most singular freak of nature to which the name of “Nick of the Woods” has been given. It is a large knot in a crotch of a cedar-tree, which forks a few feet from the ground, but it looks like a work of art. It startlingly resembles the head of an old man. In looking upon this marvel of nature we can very easily imagine it to be some hoary-headed old sinner thus wedged into the crotch of the tree and imprisoned for all time on account of some grievous offence committed about the time that he was thus placed in the stocks. So natural and perfect is this head of an old man, and such an expression of patient suffering is seen in every feature of the face, that many persons will not believe that it is wholly the work of nature until after having closely examined it. “Yank’s”[“Yank’s”] and all of the other stations along the Placerville road, were places of much importance during the early days of Washoe, when all the machinery and supplies of every kind came over the mountains on wagons.

When the teamsters stopped at night or noon, the road in front of the stations at which they halted would be blockaded for a great distance, and it looked almost as though all the teams in California were crossing the Sierras in one grand caravan. Now, since the completion of the Central Pacific, and Virginia and Truckee Railroads, the travellers on the old mountain-roads are few, and nothing of the old life and bustle is seen at the once famous stations. Even the old Lake House, at Tahoe, though it was built of good pine-logs and was very warm and substantial, has given way to more stylish structures. Times are changed and few but pleasure-seekers are now seen on the old road where once the sounding “blacksnake” awoke the echoes far and wide among the hills.

The tourist who wishes to see as much as possible of the mountains may go to the Big Tree Grove, Calaveras county, California, from Lake Tahoe, by taking what is called the Big Tree Road. On this road he will find many beautiful valleys, and much romantic scenery at an elevation of from seven to nine thousand feet above the level of the sea. At Lake Tahoe there are large and well-kept hotels at several points, two or three small steamboats and a great fleet of sail and row-boats, with fishing-tackle of all kinds, as trout abound in the waters of the lake. Tourists from the East who desire to visit the lake while on their way to California can do so very conveniently by leaving the Central Pacific Railroad at Reno and taking the cars of the Virginia and Truckee Railroad to Carson City, a distance of thirty-one miles, thence by stage to the lake, a distance of fourteen miles.