Explorer John C. Fremont first saw Lake Tahoe in 1844 from the top of Red Lake Peak, which is located south of the basin and what is now Carson Pass. He named it Lake Bonpland after a botanist, but then changed it to Mountain Lake. Subsequently it was named Lake Bigler after a California Governor. The US Department of Interior didn’t care for it either, and commissioned Dr. Henry Degroot, a journalist, to come up with a name. Degroot suggested “Tahoe” an Indian name meaning “big water”. It took decades before the name finally stuck, thanks to action in 1945 by the California State Legislature...
