What happened to Lake Tahoe National Park

by Nicole Cheslock, NC Communications
(Tahoe Vista, CA)

Sierra College’s Experts & Insights lecture presents English professor and award-winning author, Scott Lankford who will share John Muir’s Tahoe crusade on Nov. 18.

Through thought provoking images, well-told stories and excerpts from John Muir's journals, Foothill College English professor Scott Lankford will trace Muir’s high-stakes alliances with timber barons, railroad moguls and tourism titans at Sierra College on Friday, Nov. 18. As part of the Dean Lecture Series, Experts & Insights, Lankford will present Muir’s forgotten battle to create Lake Tahoe National Park.

Discover insights about Muir, the founder of the Sierra Club, and delve into how the struggle to save Lake Tahoe changed thoughts on conservation and development throughout the U.S. Muir, a Scottish-born writer and author, spent a significant amount of time in the Sierra Nevada. He is referred to as the “Father of the National Parks” for his dedication to preserving forests and petitioning Congress for the National Park bill that was passed in 1899.

Lankford is well known for his book “Tahoe beneath the surface.” After joining the 1985 American Everest West Ridge Expedition, Scott Lankford spent a decade in the Lake Tahoe region where he was a musician, maintenance man and mountaineering guide before completing a PhD in Modern Thought and Literature with a focus on John Muir at Stanford University.

Lankford has served as dean of Language Arts as well as co-director of the Foothill College Cultural Diversity Center. His active research interests include western American environmental history, the history of mountaineering, southeastern Asian history, gay and lesbian literature and Americans in Paris. He holds a BA in Philosophy from Williams College.

“Our region hosts a wealth of active and retired professors who are incredibly knowledgeable and excel in communicating their passion for study and discovery. What better way to engage the community than to share the excitement of learning something new through our Experts & Insights lecture series,” asks Kim Bateman, Dean of Sierra College’s Tahoe-Truckee campus. “Scott will provide a riveting presentation that awakens our sense of wonder and explores the dynamics of relationships and politics in the conservation movement.”

Lankford’s presentation begins at 7:30 p.m. and will conclude by 8:50 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 18. The lobby opens at 7 p.m. for complimentary coffee, tea, cookies and socializing. Experts & Insights is open to the public at no cost. Experts & Insights offers academic enrichment and intellectual exchange across a range of scholarly subjects. Open to current students and community members the lecture series offers an opportunity to interact with different professors who present their research-based passions using a variety of teaching methods. Sierra College is located at 11001 College Trail (across from Savemart) in Truckee. Visit www.sierracollege.edu, call (530) 550-2225 or send an e-mail with “Experts and Insights” in the subject line to kbateman@sierracollege.edu.


Sierra College offers career and technical education programs and core academics. Students earn certificates, associate degrees and transfer to four-year colleges and universities. Tuition is $36 per unit and discounted to just one dollar a unit for current Tahoe Truckee Unified School District high school students. Spring semester begins January 23 and new students can begin registering for classes on Nov. 29.

Attached: Scott Lankford headshot
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