The Lake of the Sky / Lake Tahoe in the High Sierras of California and Nevada, its History, Indians, Discovery by Frémont, Legendary Lore, Various Namings, Physical Characteristics, Glacial Phenomena, Geology, Single Outlet, Automobile Routes, Historic Towns, Early Mining Excitements, Steamer Ride, Mineral Springs, Mountain and Lake Resorts, Trail and Camping Out Trips, Summer Residences, Fishing, Hunting, Flowers, Birds, Animals, Trees, and Chaparral, with a Full Account of the Tahoe National Forest, the Public Use of the Water of Lake Tahoe and Much Other Interesting Matter

by George Wharton James

When the Hunsakers built the road from McKinney's to their Springs in 1883 there was a stretch of only about seven miles from Loon Lake to the Springs to complete a road between Lake Tahoe and Georgetown. The matter was laid before the Supervisors of Placer and El Dorado Counties, and they jointly built the road in 1884, following as nearly as possible the old Georgetown trail, which was practically the boundary between the two counties.

While automobiles have gone over it, it is scarcely good enough for that form of travel, but cattle, sheep and horses are driven over it constantly, campers make good use of it in the summer, and though it has not the activity of the days when it was first built, it has fully justified its existence by the comfort and convenience it gives to the sparsely settled population of the region for which the waters of the Reserve were flumed in every direction. When legal enactment practically abolished placer mining, owing to its ruining the agricultural lands lower down by the carrying of the mud and silt upon them, the water systems were utilized for domestic and irrigation purposes, thus laying the foundation of the great systems now being used for power purposes.

One of the greatest excitements known in the Tahoe region occurred when the first notice of the discovery of the Comstock lode in Virginia City appeared in the Nevada City Journal, July 1, 1859. Immediately the whole country was aroused, fully one-third of all the male population setting forth for the mines. This was also one of the great urgents in the building of a railway which soon ultimated in the Central Pacific.

There are several mineral springs of note on the Forest, chief of which are Deer Park Springs, Glen Alpine Springs and Brockway's.

The most northern grove of Big Trees, Sequoia Gigantea, in existence, is found in the Tahoe Forest, on the Forest Hill Divide, near the southern boundary of Placer County, on a tributary of the Middle Fork of the American River. There are six of these trees as well as several which have fallen.

Dotted over the Reserve are cabins of the rangers. These men live a most interesting, and sometimes adventurous and daring life. Primarily their days and nights are largely those of solitude, and it is interesting to throw a little light upon the way they spend their time.

Necessarily their chief thought and care is that of protecting the Forest from fire. To accomplish this end fire-brakes—wide passages, trails, or roads—are cut through the trees and brush, so that it is possible to halt a fire when it reaches one of the constant patrols and watches that are maintained. Lookout stations are placed on elevated points. In the fall of 1911 a Lookout Tower was erected on Banner Mountain, four miles southeast of Nevada City, in which a watchman with a revolving telescope is on duty day and night. This mountain is at 3900 feet elevation and affords an unobstructed view of about one-third of the whole area of the Tahoe Forest.

By a system of maps, sights and signals the location of fires can be determined with reasonable accuracy, and the telephone enables warnings to be sent to all concerned.

Telephone lines bisect the Reserve in several directions, and fire-fighting appliances are cached in accessible places ready for immediate use. When a Forest officer is notified of the approximate location of a fire he goes immediately with what help he thinks he needs. If he finds that the fire is larger than he can handle with the available force at his command, he notifies the Supervisor, who secures men from the most practical point and dispatches them to the fire as soon as possible, by automobile or train.

To give further fire protection a gasoline launch—the Ranger—twenty-six feet long and with a carrying capacity of fifteen men, and a speed of about nine miles an hour, was placed on Lake Tahoe in 1910, at the Kent Ranger Station, located a mile below the Tavern. The guard who is in charge of this boat is on the Lake about eight hours each day, going up the Lake in the morning towards Tallac and taking the northern end of the Lake in the afternoon. The launch is put in service each year about the 15th of June and kept there until the fire-danger is over in the fall. Normal years this is about the 15th of September, but in 1913 the launch remained and the patrolman was on duty much later.