One our new favorite places to gain knowledge about Lake Tahoe is the Tahoe Maritime Center – Museum & Gardens which provides a unique cultural experience where the Lake Tahoe regional maritime heritage is preserved, enjoyed, and passed along to future generations through innovative interpretation and public education. Awesome right?

With standing room only, we arrived to learn about what's under the lake. There's a mystique to what lies beneath the surface; likely due to the feeling of the unknown and the rare opportunity to explore the deep. In this presentation, Denise Jaffke, archaeologist for California State Parks, and Walt Holm from OpenROV, gave a virtual tour of select shipwreck sites, including the Steamer Tahoe and the Emerald Bay Resort's Minifleet. Through modern technology, they were able to document and study these vestiges of our maritime heritage like never before. WOW.
Emerald Bay, situated on the western side of Lake Tahoe, is and has been an American tourist destination for well over 150 years. Translucent blue-green water surrounded by vertical cliffs, green conifers, and granite boulders creates the quintessential Tahoe experience. And as you know, it is my happy place.
Denise was there to share the history of The Emerald Bay Resort and its role in the brand new Maritime Heritage (underwater) Trail which celebrates the history of Emerald Bay and Lake Tahoe’s culture of recreation by way of sunken ships. The Bay is the final resting place of several recreational boats, launches and barges used on the lake during the early 20th century. This was the heyday of the Emerald Bay Resort (1920s and 1930s).
After the heyday of the resort, it became the possession of the State (late 1950s) and it was dismantled and put back to nature. What to do with all the boats? Shuttle them in the Bay! At this point, Denise is recognizing the existence and location of eight mini fleet boats and two large barges, one over 100' in length.

How incredible would it be to see Lake Tahoe's nautical history in such a way?

These boats now serve as reminders of the golden age of recreation in Tahoe. This collection is the largest, most diverse group of sunken small watercraft of its kind, in their original location, known to exist in the nation. It makes me almost want to take up diving... almost.
Walt's part of the presentation involved the SS Tahoe. By the end of the 19th century, Lake Tahoe had become known as a vacation resort, with a handful of hotels and communities scattered around its shores, serviced by a number of steamers crossing the lake. Lumber magnate D.L. Bliss ordered this vessel from San Francisco's Union Iron Works in 1894. It was shipped by rail in pieces to Carson City, then by wagon to Glenbrook, reassembled, and launched with much acclaim on June 24, 1896.
At 169 feet, the SS Tahoe was the largest of the lake steamers. Her 200 passengers enjoyed a well-appointed interior, with leather upholstery, carpeting, and marble fixtures in the lavatories. Modern technologies included electric lights and bells, hot and cold running water and steam heating.
The completion of a road suitable for cars all around the lake in 1934-35, followed by the loss of the mail contract in 1934 to the Marian B, made the SS Tahoe uneconomical to operate, and she lay unused for several years. Her beauty faded, the Bliss family knew what needed to be done.
In 1940, the ship was scuttled in Glenbrook Bay. The owners of the steamship intended for it to sink in shallow enough water for tourists to see it from a glass-bottom boat, but the ship was sunk too far from shore and ended landing on a slope and sliding do a depth of up to 400 feet. Because of its great depth in a high-altitude lake, very few divers have ever been able to see the sunken ship, and no footage has been recorded of the ships interior. This is where Walt comes in. Beginning in 2012, it was his team's mission to find the SS Tahoe using OpenROV submarines and record video of its hull and interior.
Walt's team developed the Trident, an underwater drone, which allowed the splendor of the SS Tahoe to be viewed again, 79 years after it was last seen. What truly amazing technology and what a truly amazing evening of Lake Tahoe history.
Cheers to the Maritime Center, Denise Jaffke and Walt Holm for showing us what lies beneath and the history once lost.