North Lake Tahoe Bonanza news Friday, August 28, 1998 12:28

Revealing Tahoe's underworld

By Nathan Walker, Bonanza Design Editor

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Most of the people who live and visit Lake Tahoe's shores don't often think
of the lake as a graveyard. The ships that have been sunk and the cultural
and ecological artifacts that are buried under the frigid waters of Tahoe
often go unnoticed in the preservation of the lake's image as a peaceful
playground.

However, the mapping of Tahoe's floor over the last month by the United
States Geological Survey team sparked many people's interest in what may be
at the bottom of one of the deepest lakes in the world.

Though the USGS's goal was to provide a topographical map of the natural
floor bottom in moderate to deep water, many groups surrounding the
surveying team were quick to analyze the computer data that came in for
artificial artifacts.

For instance, according to representatives of the USGS, while the mapping
was still being completed, a group of broadcast journalists quickly
interpreted a cross shape within one of the digital maps as an aircraft,
possibly a military plane rumored to have crashed outside of Emerald Bay.

Michael Shulters, acting regional director of the USGS based in Menlo Park,
Calif., said such interpretations turned out to be false. "That turned out
to be a data glitch," Shulters said, "It was really eronious data that
looked like a cross, it measured by just a few feet by a few feet."

Though Tahoe's mapping was for geological purposes, not archeological
purposes, Shulters said interpretations of the data could be used for other
arenas. "It becomes a road map of the lake bottom for other research and
investigations," said Shulters.

"There are items of the map that look like artificial artifacts, but it
takes further investigations to interpret the data," Shulters said.

It is believed that many artifacts are buried beneath Tahoe's blue expanse.

Years ago it was commonplace to sink retired ships in Lake Tahoe. Ships
such as the Meteor, Nevada (also known as the Tallac) and the great steamer
Tahoe all were deliberatly sunk in the lake. Some owners took great pride
in sinking ships that had an honorable reputation. According to E.B.
Scott's "The Saga of Lake Tahoe," the former owner of the Meteor, William
S. Bliss, bought the ship back after many years "to provide her with a
fitting resting place in the great deep of Tahoe."

The steamer Tahoe, which had been contracted to deliver mail to Tahoe Basin
residents, was sunk off Glenbrook Bay in 372 feet of water on the afternoon
of Aug. 29, 1940. The ship's location is well documented and photography of
the wreck is presented in the documentary, "Sunken Treasures of Lake
Tahoe," by Jim Mitchell.

In photographing the steamer Tahoe, the film crew noticed that scavengers
had broken away parts of the ship with a grapling hook from the surface.
"Even in her silent resting place they had attempted to scalvage away the
dignity of this proud lady of the lake," Mitchell wrote.

Archeologist Susan Lindstrm has been studying the remains of ancient
forests that thrived as long as 6,000 years ago on the lake's past
shorelines. They are buried under the water line. These forests are now
just sporadic stumps, yet some of these stumps measure as high as10 feet
and measure 3.5 feet across.

Since 1985, Lindstrm has been plotting the location of these stumps. Over
20 stumps have been recorded along the lake's shore zone in water as deep
as 20 feet. She said there are some reports of stumps located off Sand
Harbor in depths of 60 feet, but such reports are unconfirmed as of yet.

Lindstrm said these stumps indicate the depth of Tahoe was shallower in
times past, possibly due to periods of extreme drought, and that trees were
able to grow and thrive on shorelines that are now submerged.

"The estimated age of these drowned trees may indicate a lowstand of Lake
Tahoe that stabilized for a period of 100 to 350 years, long enough for
these trees to become established and grow to this age," Lindstrm said.

Indications of such droughts are not only evident in the ancient stumps,
but also in Native American artifacts that have been found under Tahoe's
natural sill.

Lindstrm said that many bedrock mortars used for grinding have been found
under as much as eight feet of water, indicating a time when the shoreline
was in a different location. According to Lindstrm, 15 bedrock features
have been documented near the active shore zone. One such feature was
exposed during the drought period in the 1920s and '30s near the mouth of
the Truckee river in Tahoe City. It was eventually removed from the water
and is displayed in a local museum.

Lindtrom wrote in the Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology
that more evidence of Native American occupation of Tahoe in prehistoric
times could still be buried beneath the water.

Lindstrm was concerned about people scavenging the artifacts found in the
depths of the lake for souvenirs. She said that robbing the lake of such
artifacts is a disservice to everyone.

"The information that they contain should be preserved for the public. It
shouldn't be within the power of certain individuals to rob the public of
that information," she said.

Lindstrm said she's anxious for the mapping of the near shorezone of the
lake - 60 feet and shallower - where many of the paleoenvironmental
features would most likely be located.

"The initial deep water mapping effort just isn't going to give us the
fine-grained data that is necessary to inventory smaller environmental and
cultural features. We're awaiting the near shore survey."

Shulters said the USGS met with groups Aug. 12 to discuss the mapping of
the near shore zone, but the probability of such a mapping are low because
of finances.

Lindstrm said she is still excited about the efforts to map Lake Tahoe's
underworld and what it could mean to many different types of research.

"This is really an unknown realm that is now being disclosed with the
mapping. Tahoe's secrets are being revealed," Lindstrm said.

So what other artifacts are lying at the bottom of Tahoe's frigid blue
expanse? And what secrets could she be keeping from the many onlookers who,
despite the incredible clarity of the lake, still can't see beyond her
depths?