A freeway is an “express highway, especially with controlled access,” according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. In Tahoe, however, our “freeway” looks a little different than most, providing an express route for hikers, mountain bikers, and hunters alike, with room for a couple of cars if need be.
The Fibreboard Freeway is well known to Tahoe’s adventurous population, stretching west from Highway 267 in Kings Beach to the backside of the golf course in Tahoe City. It is approximately 11 miles of paved road, which becomes a single track toward the end. Why is this semi-paved road so important, you might ask? For one, the road provides access to many North Lake Tahoe outdoor recreation spots. Mountain bikers use the road to get to the Tahoe Rim Trail and the intricate trail networks that stem off it; climbers use the road to reach spots like Big Chief; hikers use it as an ingress to Burton Creek State Park or the Rim Trail, and, finally, hunters find small game off the freeway.
Now, let’s get to the nitty-gritty of how this road came to be, and how it allows the public to access these well-known outdoor spots. The freeway began as a logging road owned by the Fibreboard Corporation. While the company had no plans to create an access point for sports, they were serious about manufacturing vinyl siding and industrial insulation. The firm also owned a large timberland and wood products division, acquiring thousands of acres around Martis Valley in 1949 and naming the area Tree Farm, according to tmrrealestate.com. George Burgess — the chairman of the corporation at the time — loved the Tree Farm and the surrounding area, so he created a development subsidiary of the Fibreboard Corporation called Trimont Land Company in 1972 to build and operate five lifts at their newly-owned ski resort, Northstar-at-Tahoe (now Northstar California Resort). In 1994, Fibreboard Corporation also bought Sierra-at-Tahoe, formerly Sierra Ski Ranch, to expand their ski area ownership.
But back to the Freeway. The land the corporation owned around the road and used for logging purposes was acquired by the U.S. Forest Service in 1974 with funds from the Land and Resource Conservation Fund Act, which was formed in response to the increasing consciousness of public health and environmental issues in the U.S. Its mission was to have a national recreation policy established to preserve, develop, and make land accessible to all Americans, according to nps.com. The Forest Service was looking to buy large swaths of land all over the country from timber companies once the area was depleted of logging resources, similar to the situation of the Fibreboard property.
In Tahoe, the Forest Service owns and manages much of the land around the Freeway, but the road itself is not under exclusive Forest Service ownership. Karen Kuentz from the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit provides a helpful way to illustrate the mix of proprietorship: “Think of the road as a driveway that serves three different houses — even though the driveway might be located on one owner’s land, the drive itself is ‘owned’ by all three homeowners.” The street is a separate entity to which a few different property owners all have rights too.
The access this road grants our community surely demands attention. We now have Forest Service-managed access to world-class recreation. Who knew that an insulation company formed in the 1800s would be helping us mountain bike, hike, and climb today? Next time you’re out there, take a look down at the ground; from industry to recreation, these roads continue to evolve with our community.
Read about other public use land in the great Tahoe outdoors here.
