Then and now: Lake Christopher — from wet to dry

Lake Christopher was a man-made 55-acre reservoir at South Tahoe near the southwest corner of Black Bart Road and Pioneer Trail. I’m told that in the late 1950s the lake was 4- to 50feet deep, was fed by Cold Creek (that road sign exists today), and that it had lots of fish.

A decade later, its water level had dropped significantly while the lake became home to countless frogs.

On land owned originally by the Johnson family, its adjacent forest area was developed into today’s Meadow Lakes subdivision when that section of Pioneer Trail became a paved road in the 1960s. As the result of a stream and meadow restoration project, the lake was dry by the mid-1980s.

Lake Christopher existed approximately from 1955-1984, as best as I can determine, yet remains listed today on some guides and maps “for good fishing”.

The first four photos provided by Nancy Ticknor all look in the same direction toward Mt. Tallac.

Photo No. 1 shows her living room window lake view in 1977.

No. 2 shows wintertime ice skating on Lake Christopher.

No. 3 is the lake drying up due to stream and meadow restoration in 1984.

No. 4 shows today’s meadow at the same location.

No. 5 is a Google aerial view.

— Bill Kingman