Editing Lake Tahoe (section)

===Exploration and naming===
Lt. [[John C. Frémont]] was the first European-American to see Lake Tahoe, during his second exploratory expedition on February 14, 1844.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.trpa.org/default.aspx?tabindex=5&tabid=95 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205131013/http://trpa.org/default.aspx?tabindex=5&tabid=95 |archive-date=February 5, 2012 |title=Lake Tahoe Facts and Figures |access-date=October 26, 2008 |publisher=Tahoe Regional Planning Association |url-status=dead }}</ref> Fremont named it "Lake Bonpland" after [[Aimé Bonpland]] (a French botanist who had accompanied [[Prussia]]n explorer [[Alexander von Humboldt]] in his exploration of [[Mexico]], Colombia and the [[Amazon River]]).<ref name=rubiconbay>{{cite web |url=http://www.rubiconbay.net/name.htm |title=Where does the name "Tahoe" come from? |publisher=rubiconbay.net |access-date=May 9, 2007 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070315192037/http://www.rubiconbay.net/name.htm <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date = March 15, 2007}}</ref> Lake Bonpland's usage never became popular, and the name changed from "Mountain Lake" to "Fremont's Lake" several years after. [[John Calhoun Johnson]], Sierra explorer and founder of "Johnson's Cutoff" (now [[U.S. Route 50 (California)|U.S. Route 50]]), named it [[Fallen Leaf Lake (California)|Fallen Leaf Lake]] after his Indian guide. Johnson's first job in the west was in the government service carrying the mail on snowshoes from [[Placerville, California|Placerville]] to [[Nevada City, California|Nevada City]], during which time he named it "Lake Bigler" after California's third governor [[John Bigler]]. In 1853 William Eddy, the surveyor general of California, identified the lake as Lake Bigler.

[[Image:CalifNevada1860s.jpg|250px|right|thumb|An 1860s map of "Lake Bigler" during the name controversy]]
The usage never became universal. By the start of the [[American Civil War]] in 1861, former Governor Bigler, once a Free Soil Democrat, had become such an ardent [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] sympathizer that Union advocates objected to the name. Unionists and [[United States Republican Party|Republicans]] alike derided the former governor's name on the lake on official state maps. Pro-Union papers called for a "change from this [[Secessionist|Secesh]] appellation" and "no [[Copperhead (politics)|Copperhead]] names on our landmarks for us."<ref name=rubiconbay/> Several Unionist members in the Legislature suggested changing the name to the fanciful sounding "Tula Tulia". The ''[[Sacramento Union]]'' jokingly suggested the name "Largo Bergler" for Bigler's widely perceived financial incompetency in his final term and contemporary Southern sympathies. Within a year, different maps referred to the lake not only as Bigler, but also as "Mountain Lake" and "Maheon Lake".

The debate took a new direction when William Henry Knight, mapmaker for the federal [[U.S. Department of the Interior]], and colleague Dr. Henry DeGroot of the ''[[Sacramento Union]]'' joined the political argument in 1862. As Knight completed a new map of the lake, the mapmaker asked DeGroot for a new name of the lake. DeGroot suggested "Tahoe", a local tribal name he believed meant "water in a high place". Knight agreed, and telegraphed to the Land Office in Washington, D.C., to officially change all federal maps to now read "Lake Tahoe". Knight later explained his desire for a name change, writing, "I remarked (to many) that people had expressed dissatisfaction with the name "Bigler", bestowed in honor of a man who had not distinguished himself by any single achievement, and I thought now would be a good time to select an appropriate name and fix it forever on that beautiful sheet of water."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tahoeinfo.com/visit/history.htm |title=History of Lake Tahoe |publisher=South Lake Tahoe Chamber of Commerce |access-date=May 9, 2007 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070502000925/http://www.tahoeinfo.com/visit/history.htm <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date = May 2, 2007}}</ref>
[[File:Albert_Bierstadt_-_Lake_Tahoe,_California.jpg|alt=Painting with a view from the shore of Lake Tahoe. A boulder is perched on rocks on the shore, trees to the left, a bird is flying close to the water and a mountain is in the distance.|thumb|[[Albert Bierstadt]], ''Lake Tahoe, California'', 1867]]
"Lake Tahoe", also like "Lake Bigler", did not gain universal acceptance. [[Mark Twain]], a critic of the new name, called it an "unmusical cognomen". In an 1864 editorial regarding the name in the [[Virginia City]] ''[[Territorial Enterprise]]'', Twain cited Bigler as being "the legitimate name of the Lake, and it will be retained until some name less flat, insipid and spooney than "Tahoe" is invented for it."<ref>{{Cite news|title=Legislative Proceedings|first=Mark|last=Twain|url=http://www.twainquotes.com/18640212t.html|access-date=2023-01-02|via=www.twainquotes.com|newspaper=[[Virginia City]] [[Territorial Enterprise]]|date=February 1864}}</ref> In Twain's 1869 novel ''[[Innocents Abroad]]'', Twain continued to deride the name in his foreign travels. "People say that Tahoe means 'Silver Lake' – 'Limpid Water' – 'Falling Leaf.' Bosh! It means grasshopper soup, the favorite dish of the digger tribe – and of the Paiutes as well."<ref>{{cite book |author=Mark Twain|title=The Innocents Abroad |location=Mineola, NY |publisher=Dover Publications |year=2003 |orig-year=1869 |isbn=0-486-42832-X}}</ref> The [[Placerville, California|Placerville]] ''[[Mountain Democrat]]'' began a notorious rumor that "Tahoe" was actually an [[Native Americans in the United States|Indian]] renegade who plundered upon White settlers. To counter the federal government, the California State Legislature reaffirmed in 1870 that the lake was indeed called "Lake Bigler".

But to most surveys and the general public it was known as Lake Tahoe.<ref>{{cite book|last=Erwin|first=Gudde|title=California Place Names: The origin and etymology of current geographical names|date=2004|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley, CA|page=121}}</ref>   By the end of the 19th century "Lake Bigler" had nearly completely fallen out of popular use in favor of "Tahoe". The California State Legislature reversed its previous decision in 1945, officially changing the name to Lake Tahoe.