Then and now: Post offices come and go

Delivering mail in Tahoe has not always been easy. Photo/Lake Tahoe Historical Society

A sign at the above very early post office has the words “Tahoe Island Park” on the smaller sign. This pre-dates the residential area of the same name that today adjoins the Tahoe Keys on the South Shore which didn’t get developed until the 1950s.

Provided by Carol Van Etten

Carol Van Etten, who runs a historical website, said that two miles northeast of Tahoe City on Highway 28 an area named “Tahoe Island Park” was surveyed and mapped in November 1910. It is the dominant portion of today’s Lake Forest at North Shore. Van Etten believes the top photo was taken in nearby Tahoe City or simply “Tahoe” as the post office there was officially known until 1949.

Bijou Post Office
Photo/Lake Tahoe Historical Society

More than 100 years ago the Bijou Post Office existing in a small lean-to attached to the building labeled “Store.” Many decades later, Bijou would become the first main post office in South Lake Tahoe.

Before the city was formed, there were distinct postmarks for each office, such as Bijou, Al Tahoe, Stateline, Tahoe Valley and Meyers.

Today, the outgoing local mail is postmarked Reno, NV, unless it is metered, or if it is postmarked manually at a local post office.

Two local postmarks before South Lake Tahoe was formed. Photos/Bill Kingman

There was a Tahoe Keys Post Office which operated briefly from 1959 until 1962 as a branch of the Tahoe Valley Post Office.

This was once a post office in Camp Richardson. Photo/Bill Kingman

One more now-extinct local post office and postmark was Camp Richardson, Calif. It operated from 1927 to 1973.

— Bill Kingman