Lake Tahoe History Museum  530.541.5458

The South Lake Tahoe History Ring Project.

The following dates can be found on the tree piece found inside City Hall at the Lake Tahoe Airport. The numbers on the tree match the historical event below:

1.  1844 – John C. Fremont is the first non-native person to record seeing Lake Tahoe

2.  1849 – Gold is discovered in Coloma, 60 miles west of Lake Tahoe

3.  1856 – John “Snowshoe” Thompson was hired to carry mail from Placerville to Genoa

4.  1859 – Silver was discovered in Virginia City

5.  1860 – Pony Express route comes through South Shore, Friday’s Station is built

6.  1861 – Mark Twain first lays eyes on Lake Tahoe

7.  1860 thru 1890 – The trees around Lake Tahoe are clear-cut

8.  1880 – Lucky Baldwin buys a hotel on 2,000 acres, and renames it Tallac House

9.  1895 – California creates the first state Highway which later became Hwy 50

10. 1908 – Chris Johnson purchases land at Sierra House for his 500 cattle

11. 1911 – U.S. Forest Service builds the first ranger station in the Lake Tahoe Basin

12. 1913 – Road around Emerald Bay built

13. 1915 – Barton Family settles on land from the Y to the airport

14. 1927 – The TV was invented

15. 1928 – Laura Knight builds Vikingsholm

16. 1931 – Nevada legalizes gambling and two clubs open on South Shore

17. 1937 – New Meyers Grade over Echo Summit was started but not done until 1947

18. 1947 – Bijou Skyway Park opens for skiing on South Shore with one 1,000ft rope tow

19. 1952 – South Tahoe High School is established

20. 1955 – Heavenly Valley opens with 1 lift and 1 lodge

21, 1959 – Lake Tahoe Airport becomes 6th airstrip built on South Shore, just in time for the 1960 Olympics

22, 1960 – Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley (now Palisades Tahoe)

23. 1965 – City of South Lake Tahoe is incorporated

24. 1967 – Johnson family heirs donate land for a government center

25. 1968 – Sierra Ski Ranch opens

26. 1969 – The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) is formed to protect Lake Tahoe

27. 1980 – Harveys Lake Tahoe is bombed

28. 1993 – The world wide web (www) launches to the public, and the internet is born

29. 2007 – Angora Fire burns 3,100 acres and destroys 242 homes

20. 2015 – Bijou Community Park is built 1Type your paragraph here.

The South Lake Tahoe Tree Project is a collaborative effort between the Lake Tahoe Historical Society, the South Tahoe Chamber of Commerce, the City of South Lake Tahoe, and Kenny Curtzwiler of K & K Tree Services. There will be more tree rounds installed around South Lake Tahoe. 

Preserving Tahoe's History