Lake Tahoe was formed by a series of geological events, starting when parts of the earth's crust were thrust upward over two million years ago. Ice Age glaciers scoured the lake deeper, and rain and melting snow gradually filled the lake until today it is 22 miles long, 12 miles wide, with a 72-mile shoreline.
The Washoe people were the area's earliest inhabitants. They called their home "Da ow a ga", meaning "edge of lake." Over time, mispronunciation transformed the words Da ow into Tahoe. Explorers Lt. John C. Fremont and Kit Carson were the first outsiders to see Lake Tahoe. Fremont named it Lake Bonpland, but later surveyors called it Lake Bigler. In 1862, mapmaker William Henry Knight left the name Bigler off geological survey maps of the region and began a crusade to adopt the name Native American "Tahoe" instead, sparking a debate that raged until 1945, when it was finally named Lake Tahoe.
When California became a state, two-thirds of the lake was placed in the new state and the remainder in Nevada. The state line runs through the middle of the lake, north-south from its northern shore and then at a southeasterly angle. Local tourist information groups report that some map-readers misinterpret this line and ask “Where’s the bridge?”
When gold was discovered on the American River in 1848, fortune-seekers passed by Lake Tahoe on the way to stake their claims, but settlement here began after the Comstock Lode's rich silver deposits were found in Virginia City, 15 miles east, in 1858. So many people streamed into the area from the west that "Bonanza Road," today's Highway 50, was built across the mountains. Way stations, stables and toll-collecting houses spring up along it.
The area was heavily logged until about 1890 to supply timbers for the mines, and almost all the native forest was cut down. In 1864, Tahoe City began as a getaway from Virginia City.
In 1880, California entrepreneur "Lucky" Baldwin created a luxurious resort on Lake Tahoe's western shore. Foreshadowing developments over half a century later, it included a casino and an elegant hotel where wealthy guests danced in the opulent ballroom, played tennis and took steamboat rides.
During the early twentieth century, efforts to make the Tahoe basin a national park failed. After World War II, a building boom began, with gambling casinos built on the Nevada side of the state line. In 1944, Harvey Gross built a one-room gambling hall, calling it by his first name. It soon became the area’s first high-rise hotel and casino.
The 1960 Winter Olympics were held in Squaw Valley on the north side of the lake, calling the world's attention to the excellent skiing available in the area.
