A historical view of Tahoe from under the lake

Every year thousands of visitors flock to Emerald Bay State Park. Many of them enjoy the scenic drive on Highway 89, scores of them hike down to the beach and tour Vikingsholm, hundreds take in the sight of the crystal clear water by boat, kayak, or paddleboard and even a few lucky people get to explore the tea house on Fannette Island.

What many people don’t know is that lurking under the surface of the Bay’s waters is another part of the State Park, a part that the vast majority of visitors don’t get to see; California’s First Maritime Heritage Underwater Trail at Emerald Bay.

The underwater trail takes scuba divers and snorkelers to four sites in Emerald Bay where they can see various scuttled boats and a barge.

While the trail was officially opened to the public in October 2018, the history of those water vessels dates back much further.

Today, if someone wanted to build a new resort or home in Lake Tahoe, they could move construction materials around using the various roads around the basin.

But in the late 1800s and early 1900s, those roads didn’t exist or weren’t as developed as they are today. So the easiest way to move materials, and specifically large timber planks, was by barge.

That was exactly the case in the 1860s when tourism to Emerald Bay picked up and in the 1920s during the construction of the Scandinavian-style castle in Emerald Bay, known as Vikingsholm.

The two barges that now sit at the bottom of the bay once were used to carry timbers across the lake to aid in construction projects and were also used to ferry visitors’ vehicles. Once the barges had outlived their usefulness, they were scuttled.

In addition to the barges, there are more than a dozen personal use water vehicles that were also scuttled or sunk on their own.

Beginning in the 1980s, California State Parks signed lease agreements with the California State Land Commission as a way to maintain several underwater resources throughout the state, including in Emerald Bay.

The first barge was discovered in the 1990s when representatives from Indiana University began diving and studying Emerald Bay.

In 2010 Denise Jaffke, an archeologist with California State Parks, joined a dive team to study and preserve the boats in Emerald Bay.

Before the establishment of the heritage trail, a private citizen had raised a boat launch from the bay to display in the maritime museum, which was located near Homewood, Calif. The museum was later moved to Tahoe City but was closed in 2020, that boat and other vessels in the museum were sold.

Jaffke said when that boat was pulled from the lake, there was a debate among state park staff about whether that was the right move.

“There was a question of ‘how can anybody appreciate it if it’s underwater?” said Jaffke.

On the other hand, “things are best preserved underwater in cold, cold water,” said Jaffke. She added that it’s difficult and expensive to preserve vessels once they’ve been removed from the water.

The idea became to launch a pilot program, which would allow visitors to dive to the boat sites and highlight submerged cultural assets of interest.

“[An underwater park] was not a novel idea, it was just novel to California,” said Jaffke

These vessels were purposely sunk when the owners were done using them, making them literally trash. So what makes them worth preserving?

One thing is their age. To be determined as a National Historic Landmark in the United States, something must be at least 50 years old, which all of these vessels are.

But the other thing, and maybe the more important point is their historical significance.

“Those barges are just so different from how people move around and get resources around the lake,” said Jaffke.

In addition, the barges were made with Ponderosa Pine timbers. The larger of the two barges sits at around 100 feet wide. Following the timber industry wiping out much of Lake Tahoe’s old, full-grown trees, there just simply aren’t trees that are of that size commonly around. So, the size of the timbers that built the barges is a site to see in and of itself.

The four dive sites are part of Emerald Bay State Park and help tell the story of Vikingsholm.

“They’re really valuable cultural resources in telling the history of Emerald Bay. You know, in its heyday, the Emerald Bay Resort was a place for folks to go out fishing and there were rowboats and motorboats that folks could use when they were staying at the Emerald Bay Resort. So these submerged cultural resources are so important in telling the story of Emerald Bay and the maritime history in Lake Tahoe,” said Kaytlen Jackson, State Park Interpreter at Emerald Bay.

Management of the underwater park is different in many ways than a typical aboveground park. While there are interpretive signs at all four dive sites, there isn’t a park ranger in the water, to give people information and make sure they are doing the right thing.

Jackson is part of a dive team that goes out annually to check on the sites. She said they’ve noticed some light vandalism of the boats such as people drawing in the algae or stacking rocks on the boats.

However, unlike a typical park, divers do have to be certified or be with a certified dive master, adding an extra level of knowledge about how to protect and recreate responsibly underwater.

Another issue the park runs into is people not realizing the boats are there and dropping anchor on them. There is a California State Park patrol boat that goes out and can make sure people are dropping anchor in the correct place.

While there are four dive sites, there are more than a dozen submerged vessels in and around the bay. Jaffke said they picked the four sites based partially on the safety of divers in mind. So they did not pick sites in high-traffic areas or possible anchor sites.

In addition to being a fun dive site for recreators, the trail also offers learning opportunities. Jaffke now takes underwater archeology students to the dive sites to learn how to study underwater resources.

Jaffke said she hopes with the success of the four current sites, the park will one day be able to make more sites available.

To get the coordinators of the four sites and to learn more about safely recreating in the lake, visit http://www.parks.ca.gov

This article originally appeared in the Summer 2024 edition of Tahoe Magazine.