Carnelian Bay
How Carnelian Bay got its name … and what about the body ?
In 1860, Carnelian Bay in North Lake Tahoe, was named for the semi-precious red and yellow stones peppering the shoreline … although in 1873 dueling newspapermen argued about whether the name’s source originated from the Carnelian stones or the Cornelian cherry trees that dotted the shoreline. Carnelian Bay is a North Shore community mid-way between Tahoe City and Kings Beach. Carnelian Bay was renown for its fishing in 19th Century was renown with small boat recreationists and commercially by the Flick Brothers who owned most of Carnelian Bay’s lake frontage. Today Flick Point is one of North Lake Tahoe’s most expensive residential lake front locations. And we should not forget the “Believe It or Not” factoid that the three bachelor Flick brothers were all born on Christmas Day; and that William died in April 1929 and his brothers died on April 9th and 19th … nine years later.
In 1873, a finely-dressed corpse was found floating in the scalding water of the Savage Mine in Virginia City. No one was missing and no one could gain access to the mine site without registering their name, so where did the body come from? Off the shore in Carnelian Bay a vacationer named Meeker was investigating a strange whirlpool that seemed to powerfully suck down objects including a piece of wood on which he carved with his initials. Meeker had a job at the Savage Mine pumping station and one day was elated to see his initialed wood come bobbing to the surface. Is there a hole in the Lake? Newsman researched the question pouring over mining reports and survey maps, and discovered that Lake Tahoe dropped a foot once the Comstock began large scale pumping … did the steaming hot springs of Virginia City originate with frigid waters of Lake Tahoe ?
Carnelian Bay has a small collection of commercial enterprises: the Old Post Office Café, Waterman’s Landing, CBs Bistro, a 7-11, a laundromat, the Magic Carpet miniature golf course, two real estate offices, and a dentist office. The lake frontage is bracketed by Carnelian Bay’s Marina and Sierra Boat Company, and Gar Woods lakefront restaurant, reputed to be the busiest on the lake. The TahoeCommercial team has represented most of the businesses and real estate principals in the Carnelian Bay community … some of them multiple times.
