Tahoe Tessie and the Underwater Mysteries of Lake Tahoe

A slight movement catches the corner of your eye and a humped shape breaks the surface of the blue water. Are your eyes playing tricks on you or is this ancient lake, that straddles the Nevada/California border, home to a large, elusive creature trapped since the last Ice Age?

Legends of Tahoe Tessie, which is either a plesiosaur (supposedly female) or other large prehistoric fish, have been around since members of the Washoe and Paiute Indian tribes told white explorers and settlers about a monster that lived in the lake. The reported modern sightings of Tahoe Tessie date back to 1972 and the stories were used as a clever marketing ploy to attract would-be monster hunters to the shores of the lake. Tahoe Tessie t-shirts and stuffed toys could be purchased at a King’s Beach shop.

When you visit the lake and peer down into the clear water, many of the large, rounded boulders that lie under the surface of the lake do look a lot like a slumbering leviathans, and can be a bit unnerving to look at as you snorkel or kayak over the top of them. Whether or not Tessie is real remains to be seen, but Lake Tahoe is already home to several sunken treasures that visitors to the 1,645 foot deep lake may never know about. Tahoe tall tales include that the bottom of the lake is frozen solid and that mobsters in the 1940s and 50s used the lake as a dumping ground for their victims (complete with cement shoes).

In April of 2009, Scott Cassell attempted to bring a few of these mysteries to light by taking his one man submarine, the Undersea Voyager, down to 150 feet. He exclaimed that the clarity of the lake was so good, that at 50 feet, he could still see the surface. His goal was to study the ecosystem of the lake, water quality issues and the seven fault lines that run across the bottom of the lake. He did happen to find several dugout canoes that may or may not have been built by the indigenous people of the area. He also said that any bodies in the lake supposedly dumped by mobsters would no longer be around. Bacteria and small animals such as crawdads and trout would have taken care of those long ago. Cassell thinks that additional trips to the bottom of the lake with a remote control device will prove that hydrogen sulfide and other volcanic activity will most likely be found on the bottom.

For a trip a little close to the surface, visit Emerald Bay, where about 20 to 40 feet down there are two sunken 1900s wooden barges that were towed by steamer ships and used to supply general cargo to the lake.  These barges were sunk when no longer used. You can see part of one of these barges from about 10 feet down on the east side of Emerald Bay. Just look for the buoy. Emerald Bay is an underwater park, so please don’t take anything from the barge.

Unfortunately, what you can surely find under the water are the remnants of other visitors: beer and soda cans, windblown towels or clothing, and other garbage. If you’re snorkeling or diving the lake, take a few minutes to pick up and discard a few of these items and help keep Tahoe that crystal, clear blue. No matter what lives deep in this lake, the animals that do make it their home: trout, beavers, minnows, crawdads and water fowl depend on visitors to keep their home clean and trash free.

[Photo by Bala/Flickr]