Sugar Pine Nature Center in Tahoe City, California is located on Highway 89 and is open dusk to dawn from June 1 to October 31. Admission to the facility is free, but there is a $5 day-use charge, which is also the place where visitors park their vehicles.
It's an informative center near the Erhman Mansion that has displays of birds, mammals and major game fish indigenous to the Lake Tahoe Basin. The facility has a continuously playing video that teaches visitors about the history of the lake. The video also teaches visitors about the early American Indians.
The Sugar Pine Nature Center is located in Sugar Pine Point State Park. The center also has wildflower, tree, biology and lake ecology exhibits. The facility is kid-friendly and has a special hands-on table where children can touch various nature- and animal-related items.
Lake Tahoe's Sugar Pine Point State was the place where generations of Washoe Indians spent their summers. They hunted and fished along Lake Tahoe's shores. Visitors to the state park and the Sugar Pine Nature Center will get to see bedrock mortars and grinding rocks used by these peoples.
European settlers didn't permanently settle in the area until around 1860. This is around the time records of Lake Tahoe's first permanent settler can be found. He was a trapper and fisherman by the name of William "General" Phipps. His cabin is still located north of Sugar Pine Point State Park's pier.
Those with an interest in the natural history of Tahoe Basin can also find publications on this topic at the Sugar Pine Nature Center.
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