30 years ago — Tahoe was sliding away
Two mudslides and two landslides in April-May 1983 impacted the Lake Tahoe Basin. The two slides on Highway 50 virtually isolated tourism-driven South Lake Tahoe for months, causing some businesses to close. This old VHS tape is Tad Dunbar reporting on KOLO-TV Reno detailing all four slides.
Bill Kingman of South Lake Tahoe compiled this footage.
Incredible history captured and shared by Mr. Kingman. Thank you for this. We were mesmerized. We thoroughly appreciate these history lessons.
I remember driving through Washoe Valley the week after Slide Mt slid. 3+ feet of mud on both sides of 395. And then we had the slides on 50 at Kyburz and Spooner Summit. SLT was a true ghost town for that period of time it took to reopen the highway in both directions. I was working at Carlos Murphy’s and we had free tix on the hostess desk to see James Brown at Caesars .
Wow…amazing footage…thanks for sharing.
Things were pretty quiet around So. Shore after the slides. Lots of places lowering there prices to get a few customers thru the doors. 5 cent beers at the Nugget and some of the resturants offering specials. It was quite a time. Thanks for the footage Bill, as always, excellent! OLS
The slides happened on the West Slope too. Took out houses and animals. A shame. Remember the contest that was held to name the resulting lake below Kyburz? I don’t know which won, but my favorite was ‘Senior Citizen Lake’. Because it was over 50.
Remember the slide on 50 near White Hall in 1997?
We were headed to Tahoe and passed by ~10:30pm. I remember seeing muddy, not clear water, sheeting over the highway. I knew muddy water can be a precursor to a mud slide but didn’t think much of it. By the time we got to our house and turned the TV on the news was telling about the slide which occurred ~ 11:20pm.
The link to a geology report is below, has some cool photos.
http://www.conservation.ca.gov/cgs/rghm/landslides/cal_geology/Documents/1997%20Hwy%2050%20Cal%20Geology.pdf
We always love Bill’s stories. Great work, thanks!http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LakeTahoeNews/~3/_4JFoQrgwBA/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email
I do remember that Spring.
Some where a big mud /earth slide or an avalanche will do damage again.
Looking at history we might be near the end of the dry cycle around Tahoe and heading back to a really big one again. Makes me again wonder about the Wisdom of building 1,000 condo’s right next to the Mountain in Squaw Valley.