historical

El Dorado County desperately needs climate change – political climate, that is. The county in historic Gold Country stretches from the tony estates of El Dorado Hills to the vacation resorts of South Lake Tahoe, but its government is still stuck firmly in Hangtown.

That’s the old handle of Placerville, county seat of El Dorado. There’s a historical marker noting the old hanging tree just down Main Street from the county courthouse.

In a world full of acronyms it may be difficult to keep up on what they all mean. Here are two that you may want to learn as they have an impact on students in not only the Lake Tahoe Unified School District, but in the entire state of California.

The Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) replaces California's nearly half-century-old, state-controlled school finance system with one that promises more local control as well as greater transparency and fairness. LCFF is designed to provide school districts with flexibility to direct resources to meet student's needs.

The Sierra Nevada, with its beautiful blue lakes, towering granite mountains, forests with trees that appear to touch the clouds, thundering rivers and waterfalls, and hidden valleys has long been the domain of dreams, attracting the good and the bad, the adventurous and the delusional.

South Lake Tahoe City Clerk Susan Alessi received the 2014 Presidential Award of Excellence from the City Clerk’s Association of California. Ms. Alessi was presented with the Presidential Award at the annual conference which was held in Pasadena and attended by hundreds of City Clerks from around the state.

Movies were in a Quonset hut where movie goers had to bundle up to fight the cold. Lake Tahoe was full of one way roads and a 2 room school. The switchboard operator knew where all 50 winter residents were at all times. Cattle walking down Highway 50.

The history of the south shore came alive last week at the Camp Richardson Lodge during the Lake Tahoe Historical Society’s “Do You Remember?” series.

Do you remember Oliver’s casino or the tree in the middle of Highway 50 or the first high school in South Lake Tahoe?

There will be a panel of longtime residents telling stories and answering questions about the past. Dave Borges will moderate.

Panelists include Carolyn Meiers, Jerry Johnson, Jack Martin, Del Laine, Steve James and Melba Rakow.

The Lake Tahoe Historical Society is putting on this event at the lodge at Camp Richardson on Tuesday, April 15 at 7 p.m.

Cost is $3 for non-members, no charge for members.

The Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board has approved a grant of $704,000 to the Truckee River Watershed Council for three watershed restoration projects that will correct detrimental impacts to streams and meadows from roads and historical logging activities.

South Lake Tahoe's hometown girl Jamie Anderson cleaned up her second run to earn the first-ever women’s slopestyle snowboarding gold medal Sunday at the 2014 Sochi Olympic Winter Games.

Dubbed the "All Star Panel," a group of long time local residents shared stories of a South Lake Tahoe most of us never experienced. The seven panelists have lived in Lake Tahoe a combined 600 plus years and shared some great stories with the overflowing crowd at Camp Richardson Lodge on Tuesday evening. In fact, the number of long time locals in the audience was very evident since their combined years of living in Lake Tahoe was over 1880!

Dave Wakeman, South Lake Tahoe resident since 1947

Former U.S. Vice-President Al Gore said, in his speech to scientists, elected officials, environmentalists, business leaders, fire department officials, students and others in the audience of the 2013 Lake Tahoe Summit, that what we’ve learned at Tahoe can help inform the rest of the world to protect their resources and communities.

While clarity improved at Lake Tahoe for a second straight year in 2012, long-term trends show that climate change is impacting the Lake Tahoe Basin with drier years, less precipitation, higher lake temperatures and projected lower lake levels.

These conclusions are found within the lake's annual health exam,"Tahoe: State of the Lake Report 2013," released today by the Tahoe Environmental Research Center at the University of California, Davis.

The federal government settled two lawsuits Thursday seeking recovery against PG&E and its contractors for wildfires that scorched thousands of acres of national forest land in 2004 and 2008.

The fires — known as the “Power Fire” and the “Whiskey Fire” — collectively burned more than 18,000 acres of national forest. These settlements, totaling $50.5 million, are a significant step toward restoring the precious national resources destroyed by the fires, said U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner.

The Lake Tahoe Historical Society is proud to host David Borges, D.C. as he presents a 40 minute Power Point presentation showing the six different South Shore airfields that were either proposed or built. Also covered will be the many airlines that flew into and out of the Lake Tahoe Airport. The conclusion will relate some mishaps that were photographed at the South Tahoe Airport. Join us for this free and interesting event at the historic Camp Richardson Lodge. Come early - seating is limited.

Location

The Highway 50 Association is a non-profit organization dedicated to horse and wagon enthusiasts, and the historical reenactment of the "Great Western Migration." We invite you to participate in our 64th Anniversary run in the summer of 2013.

Take a step back through the portals of time and relive the adventures and rigors of the early pioneers as they forged their way west.

The winners of the Carson Memories photo contest were announced this week in a ceremony held at the Carson Nugget.
The Carson Memories contest asked participants to submit their favorite photos demonstrating something special or distinct about the Carson City area.

The winning photos, along with the other select photos, are being incorporated into an exhibit created by Gardnerville artist, Beverly Caputo. The exhibit is featured next to a recently finished mural painted by Caputo. The mural depicts key people, places and things of historical relevance to Carson City.

The white walls on the second floor, outside the banquet rooms of the Carson Nugget, are in the process of being transformed. Right now they contain the mural paintings of Kit Carson, V&T Railroad, Dat So La Lee, the Carson Mint, Carson Nugget, Roosevelt’s Speech Capital Building, Carson Brewery and Capital Building; but soon those walls could contain so much more.

“The hope is to show Carson City’s uniqueness as well as the love and pride we have for our home and community,” said Gardnerville artist Beverly Caputo.

Reno writer and educator, Raymond Rugg, has been selected as a panelist for the Southwest/Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Association's 33rd annual conference, slated for February in Albuquerque, N.M. He will be discussing his short story, tum' and the Agency school, at a panel designed to explore the combination of speculative fiction and indigenous peoples.

Rugg is the former editor of Lake Tahoe Action Magazine and a former staff member of both the Tahoe Daily Tribune and the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Lake Tahoe's biological health will be the focus of a State of the Lake presentation Dec. 13 by Dr. Geoff Schladow, director of the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center in Incline Village.

Sale of the 564-acre Genoa Lakes Golf Resort to Mazz Golf Management Co. is currently in escrow with closing expected in mid-October, the principals of the deal announced in a news release.

The 2012 Tahoe Expo, taking place this September 8th-9th, is a geotourism showcase of fun, educational, and sustainable adventures around all 72 miles of Lake Tahoe, American’s biggest alpine lake, as well as nearby Truckee and Reno.

The Lake Tahoe Historical Society sends huge thank yous to the homeowners who opened their gardens on July 29 for our ninth annual tour. Thanks also to our garden centers who, again, sold our ticke...

Coming from as far as Australia and as near as North Lake Tahoe, more than 200 men and women athletes are gearing up for a race to remember at Northern Nevada’s inaugural Expedition Man Endurance Festival and Ultra-Distance-Triathlon, taking place Saturday, August 25. Athletes will begin with a swim at Zephyr Cove Resort at Lake Tahoe, then onto a more than 100-mile-bike-ride through Carson City and a long-run along the Truckee River, ending at the Legends at Sparks Marina.

The University of Nevada, Reno, in cooperation with the Nevada State Historic Preservation Office, has sent a team of archaeologists to excavate the site of one of Nevada’s most important early hospitals. St. Mary Louise Hospital in Virginia City opened in 1876 and served the mining community until the early 20th century.

Here is this week's fishing report for rivers, lakes and streams in Nevada, Northern California and the Sierra. This fishing report is for the week of May 30 to June 5, 2012.