What's your favorite chapter in Tahoe beneath the Surface?
I've been researching this book compulsively now for literally ten years—so that's like asking a parent, "Which is your favorite child?" That said, I'm especially fond of the chapters that explode common stereotypes completely. The Donner murders chapter is one case in point. Most people I meet have at least heard of the Donner Party and the heinous acts of cannibalism they committed—yet they have no idea that the members of the party also committed murder. The fact that their Indian rescuers were deliberately killed and eaten in cold blood shocks most people—me included. How could you kill and then eat the very men sent to save you? Who were these Indian rescuers? What was their story? It's an irresistible mystery.
If readers could get just one thing out of your book, what would it be?
Tahoe is a lens through which to review and reimagine all of American history—not just the local history of the lake itself. So I want readers to walk away shaking their heads in wonder over the whole "story of America" from beginning to end—with Lake Tahoe at its center!
Anything surprising happen that you did not expect?
Frankly, the whole book was a surprise. Ironically, when I first began writing, I chose Tahoe as a quick, easy topic I thought I already knew a lot about Lake Tahoe's history and could write up something quick and interesting about it. Well, then I would begin researching and suddenly find myself falling, falling, falling into new areas of knowledge and history I'd never so much as dreamed of before—and hey, I have a PhD in American studies! In retrospect, it felt almost like Alice falling down the rabbit hole—except I seemed to be "falling into" the hidden history of Lake Tahoe. In fact, that's where the title "Tahoe beneath the Surface" first emerged: it describes my own experience as a writer. In short, I discovered whole new worlds of hidden history in the writing of this book.
What challenges did you encounter?
The challenges came hand in hand with the discoveries. What the heck do you do when you discover that the very topic you thought you knew so well contains new mysteries no one else, you included, has fathomed? Well, you dig—and dig, and dig, and dig. So the amount of research time I lavished on this book could (and probably should) have resulted in fourteen new books, not just fourteen new chapters. That's one reason it took me ten years to finish this book. So much for a "quick 'n easy" topic!
How did your book come to be?
In 1999 Foothill College granted me a full-year research sabbatical and I set out to write a book about Mount Everest—never dreaming I'd end up writing a book about Lake Tahoe instead. But while trekking in the Everest region I gradually realized that I was learning a whole lot more about Nepal and Tibet than I had ever known about my own backyard: its history, culture, politics, literature, ecology—everything. Something about that learning disturbed me deeply. Whatever happened to "Think Globally, Act Locally" I wondered? So—in what turned out to be a fateful decision—I brought a famous Sherpa climber named Tashi Tsering back with me to Lake Tahoe for an impromptu visit. While Tashi shoveled snow off roofs to make easy money, I holed up in a little cabin and began writing a "quick little" book about Lake Tahoe to pass the time. Ten years later I'm finally, finally, finally finished—well, that is, at least until I talk Heyday into publishing a "Tahoe beneath the Surface Volume II"! Oh, and that book about Mount Everest? It's still unfinished too.
