The little known names of Lake Tahoe.

By: Aaron Robbins

It’s a name that conjures up visions of bottomless blue waters, white snow covered peaks, forests thick with Jeffery Pines and powdery ski runs laced with perfect figure eights. Lake Tahoe. The name is now synonymous with “the great and beautiful outdoors.” It’s a name we all know and love. If someone were to suggest changing it the

“Keep Tahoe Blue” folks would undoubtedly change their stickers to “Keep TahoeTahoe”. While most of us cannot picture the lake being called anything else, our culture’s acceptance of the name “Lake Tahoe” is somewhat of a new phenomena. Before 1945 people from California and Nevada witnessed many changes to Lake Tahoe’s name as explorers, surveyors and map makers all tried to keep up with our nation’s westward expansion.

Lake Bonpland
The first name given to Lake Tahoe was Lake Bonpland. While sources agree the name was used in honor of the French botanist Aimé Jacques Alexandre Bonpland, some reports give credit of the naming to Fremont while others give credit to Kit Carson.

Mountain Lake and Fremont Lake
Up until 1852 description based maps (also called narrative maps) of the Tahoe area referred to Lake Tahoe as “Mountain Lake.” Some of the mining maps being produced during this time named the lake “Fremont Lake” while other map makers failed to include the lake at all.

Lake Bigler
In March of 1853 the Surveyor General of California listed the name of Lake Tahoe as “Lake Bigler.” This name was given in honor of California’s third governor, John Bigler. Some people, such as Mark Twain, liked the name Lake Bigler while others didn’t like the southern supporting governor and demanded the name be changed. One critic took a jab at Bigler by suggesting the name “Lake Bigler” be saved for a lake made entirely of beer. Public opinion of Governor Bigler fell sharply during the American Civil War and once again the search for a new name was on.

Lake Tahoe
During the war many names were suggested for Tahoe. Some people wanted to name the lake after a president while others called for more native names like, “Tula Tulia” and “Big Truckee Lake.” During this time William Henry Knight, map maker for the United States Department of the Interior, was charged with mapping the Lake Tahoe area. Knight was given many suggestions for Tahoe’s official name but he ultimately decided to find a native name for the lake. After his advisers consulted notebooks and other explorers it was determined the name “Tahoe” was one of the more common native name’s for the lake. Mr. Knight requested the name “Lake Tahoe” be applied to all future maps of the area. With the backing of the US Dept. of Interior the name “Lake Tahoe” finally stuck. While there continued to be some arguing over the name, in 1945, after nearly 100 years of being called different things by different people, the name “Lake Tahoe” finally became official. Car manufactures, real estate agents and bloggers rejoiced as they could finally begin marketing the name.

It should be noted “Tahoe” is said to mean “big water” or “water in high place,” I think it is a fitting and beautiful name for our pristine mountain lake even if Mark Twain didn’t like it. What do you think?

Sources:
The Lake of the Sky, Lake Tahoe, in the High Sierras of California - By George Wharton James
Rubicon Bay
Lake Tahoe Wikipedia

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