Placer County
Location and general
Truckee, once a little lumberjack village, has developed only slowly, in spite of its strategically favorable position near Lake Tahoe and its superb ski-slopes which are among the best in the United States. As a result the small town still provides a good example
of a place which has changed but little since the 19th century.
It owes its name to the river called Truckee after the Paiute Indian, who in 1844 led Elisha Steven's group through the Donner Pass which they had discovered. Stevens had in fact made up his mind to be the first to cross the Sierra Nevada to Alta California with a covered-wagon trek.
Origin
Truckee was founded in 1863 - the same year in which President Abraham Lincoln signed the law which authorized the building of a transcontinental railway. The Central Pacific Railroad Company decided to run the lines right through the middle of Truckee. This led to the development of the timber industry, now long since replaced by tourism as the most important source of income. In 1913 California's first ski-club was formed in Truckee; since then the number has grown to more than twenty. The following ski-slopes are to be found in the immediate vicinity (like Lake Tahoe):
Ski-slopes
Boreal, 10mi/16km west on the U.S. 80, exit to Castle Peak (Nov.-Apr.); Donner Ski Ranch, 10mi/16km west on the U.S. 80 (Dec.-Apr.); Northstar, 6mi/9km on the CA 267 (Nov.-Apr.); Tahoe Donor, 6mi/9km west on the U.S. 80 (Dec.-Apr.).
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