Gem of the Sierra: Schemes and Splendor in Nineteenth-Century Lake Tahoe

For many people the history and literature of Lake Tahoe is an endless love letter to its extraordinary splendor. But, as with most histories, the story is complicated. Lake Tahoe in the nineteenth century was marked by insult and mistreatment of the Indigenous population; commercial exploitation of the lake’s timber, water, and fisheries; a paroxysm of resorts; environmental calamities; and venal political backbiting. In that era, too, Lake Tahoe became a commanding emblem of national longing and resolve. It was particularly attractive to those who viewed all things American as bigger, better, and more beautiful than what had come before. In a land dominated by ostentatious expectations and Manifest Destiny, those passionate advocates viewed the magnificent alpine lake as a transcendent symbol of American ideals, a land exemplifying the promise and preeminence of an exceptional social experiment.

This anthology gathers selections from fiction, nonfiction, and government documents that chronicle the splendor, the exploitation, and the controversies surrounding this extraordinary and much-loved alpine lake. Some selections have not appeared in print since their original publication, while others have not been republished or excerpted for decades.

Gary Noy has taught history at Sierra Community College in Rocklin, California, for more than three decades. He is the editor of Distant Horizon: Documents from the Nineteenth-Century American West (Nebraska, 1999) and Nature’s Mountain Mansion: Wonder, Wrangles, Bloodshed, and Bellyaching from Nineteenth-Century Yosemite (Bison Books, 2022), among other books.