GROWING UP IN TAHOE
Less than 30 years ago, where bike paths, parking for rafters, and the Tahoe Rim Trail now meander along the Truckee River in Tahoe City, the Tahoe City Trailer Park was located on a big chunk of what most folks now know as 64 Acres. A rickety, old one-lane bridge crossed the river, about where the bike bridge is now, to a loop containing several dozen mobile homes. It was different place.
The Washoe hunted and fished on this land, but it’s been a long time since it in any way resembled wilderness. The train from Truckee to the Tahoe Tavern rolled right through 64 Acres, and then used this rare hunk of flat land as the turn-around loop for the journey back to Truckee.’ In more recent times, 64 Acres was controlled by the Truckee-Carson Irrigation District, which in turn leased portions of the land to the trailer park, an engineering firm, a rental equipment business, the power company, and a landscaping company. In 1970, the U.S. Forest Service began a drawn out process to legally wrangle possession of the land from the irrigation district, which resulted in the USFS taking control 14 years later. The Forest Service then proceeded to kick out the tenants and thin the unhealthy forest.
Just upriver at Fanny Bridge, on land owned by the State of California, you will now find picnic space, interpretative panels, and a walkway behind the dam. Just a few years ago, Izzy’s Burger Spa was one of a string of fast food–type places located on the north side of the river. Fanny Bridge Inn, complete with a tree jutting right through the middle of the restaurant, held sway on the south side of the dam. The FBI became the Bridgetender, which then moved across the street to its current location when the state government told them it was time to vamanos.
While most folks might consider all these changes improvements, when you talk to people who lived in the Tahoe City Trailer Park, they feel like we really lost something in the process.
‘It was a very unique place,’ said Gena Buschmann, who graduated from North Tahoe High School in 1979 and now lives in Truckee. ‘Our trailer was on the river, we had an organic garden, my husband, Paul, built a corral for my horse Moonshine, all for $55 a month! I’m still looking for such a paradise today.’
Another former Tahoe local, Tim Tilton, remembers ‘what a collection of folks that lived there: world class skiers, coaches, rock climbers, and your normal working-class people just trying to survive the high cost of living in Tahoe.’ Tilton talks about it as a place where anything went, but where the people were caring and kind. Buschmann laments the loss of ‘a unique place to get a start in life,’ an opportunity for inexpensive living that is much harder to find for her kids.
Now, 64 Acres, primarily through the work of the Tahoe City Public Utility District, is geared towards providing a bit of green space in the middle of town, and access to the river with parking and bike trails. Soon it will also house a transit center, currently under construction adjacent to West Lake Boulevard, and perhaps next summer the Tahoe City Farmer’s Market.
Even though I have lived in Tahoe just about my whole life, I really only fully discovered the Truckee River when I moved an easy 10-minute walk from its banks last fall. While before she was the girl in high school that you didn’t really notice, now she has let her hair down and the 20 years since graduation have done her well. She is no longer just the invisible sister to the big blue diva upstream; she has a lot going in her own right. When I take a few steps into her refreshing September coolness, I feel the power of the crystal-clear water wrapping sweetly around me. You can sit on the edge and watch the rafters drift slowly by, or marvel at the wildflowers and the dragonflies. Once the summer is gone, it’s time for a quiet walk next to her, enjoying the gentle sound of gurgling water, and the comical sight of geese butts as they go bottom-up to reach for the tender morsels under the river’s surface. The Truckee River may not dish out the jaw dropping oh-my-God feeling that you get every time you look at Lake Tahoe, but she is understated nature well done. She’s gone through a lot over the last 150 years, and will probably go through more again. But now that she gets the chance to enjoy a moment in the sun, she is looking pretty good.
~ Tim Hauserman grew up in Tahoe City. While he didn’t realize he was missing all the fun at the Tahoe City Trailer Park, he did enjoy hanging out at Fanny Bridge Inn. Comment on this column below.
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