Historic Articles in Scientific Journals

Alpine and Subalpine Vegetation of the Lake Tahoe Region. F. J. Smiley, 1915. Botanical Gazette 59, no. 4 (April): 265-286.
Includes information about geology, topology, climate (with temperature and precipitation charts) and lists of plants in the vegetation zones.

Lake Tahoe Lumber Operations. (Scientific American, 1877). 1877. Scientific American (November 10): 291.
A short piece describing the lumber industry in the Tahoe area in 1877.

Lake Tahoe. (Scientific American, 1886). 1886. Scientific American (Setpember 25): 196.
A short piece about the depth of Lake Tahoe and the temperature of the water in various spots.

Physical Studies of Lake Tahoe. John Le Conte, 1883-1884. Overland Monthly
Part I, November 1883, pp. 506-515: History of the lake's name; temperature/depth chart, with comparisons to Lake Geneva; transparency measurements; "why drowned bodies do not float."
Part II, December 1883, pp. 595-612: "Colors of the Waters of Lake Tahoe."
Part III, January 1884, pp. 41-46: "Rhythmical Variations in Levels of Lakes: or 'Seiches.'"

First Person Accounts: Early Exploration and Tourism

First Sighting of Lake Tahoe by the John C. Fremont Expedition. John C. Fremont, 1844.
Excerpts from Report of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains in the Year 1842 and to Oregon and Northern California in the years 1943-'44 by Brevet Captain J.C. Fremont of the Topographical Engineers. Washington DC: Gales and Seaton, Printers. Includes an illustration and two maps.

Lake of the Sky: Lake Tahoe. George Wharton James, 1915. New York: J. F. Tapley Co.
A 385-page digital book. A history of the earlier years of the Tahoe area. Includes photographs; Tahoe-related appendices on Mark Twain, Thomas Starr King, John Le Conte, and John Vance Cheney (with excerpts of their writings) and resorts.

Lake Tahoe and the High Sierras: A History of the Comstock Lode & Mines. Dan de Quille, 1889.
Excerpts from A History of the Comstock Silver Lode and Mines Virginia, NV: F. Boegle. Dan De Quille was the editor of the Territorial Enterprise in Virginia City and chronicled much of the Comstock area history.

Letters no. 1, 2, and 3 in A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains. Isabella Bird, 1879.
Letters written to her sister during her six-month journey by train and on horseback in the autumn and winter of 1873 from San Francisco to the Rockies. The first three pertain to the time she spent near Lake Tahoe. Originally published by G.P. Putnam's Sons in New York.

Roughing It. Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens), 1872. Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia.
Semi-autobiographical account of Twain's real-life adventures in the 19th-century American West, as a frontier newspaper reporter, prospector, and writer. He went west by stagecoach to serve as personal secretary to his Orion, Secretary of the Nevada Territory.

Synopsis of a Paper Upon A Summer's Exploration in the Sierra Nevada. A. R. Conkling, 1877. Journal of the American Geographical Society of New York 9: 86-87.
Includes some facts about the lumber industry of the time.

Scientific Reports and Data

Lake Tahoe Watershed Assessment. Dennis D. Murphy and Christopher M. Knopp, eds., 2000. Volumes I and II. Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-175. Albany, CA: Pacific Southwest Research Station, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture; 753 p.
The first attempt to collate, synthesize, and interpret available scientific information with a comprehensive view toward management and policy outcomes.

Lake Tahoe Watershed: Precipitation and Snow Data. 1869-1949.
Handwritten charts depicting snowfall and precipitation data and a description of the Charles Dukes papers in Special Collections. Dukes was the Truckee River Water Master from 1926 until his death in 1984.