Tahoe, Lake

Body of water on the border of northeastern California and western Nevada, 130 km/80 mi east-northeast of Sacramento and 6 km/4 mi west of Carson City. The largest mountain lake in the USA, it covers a total area of 518 sq km/200 sq mi, measures 34 km/21 mi long by to 19 km/12 mi wide, and is up to 501 m/1,645 ft deep. Lake Tahoe is a popular resort centre all year round.

The one-third of Lake Tahoe's shore that lies in Nevada is dominated by gambling resorts; the casinos here were a centre of Mafia activity frrom the 1950s onwards. The California side, where South Lake Tahoe is the largest city, contains many watersports centres and extensive apartment block developments. The lake's human history goes back 10,000 years; in the 19th century, its last indigenous inhabitants were the Washoe people. The first Europeans to sight it were John C Frémont and Kit Carson in 1844. The shore of the lake was once heavily forested, but was exploited for lumber and largely denuded of trees during the Comstock Lode period in the 1860s-70s.