People for years have said the Washoe people say there is significance when the snow cross melts on Mount Tallac on the South Shore of Lake Tahoe. Wrong. It has zero importance to the tribe.

“Washoe tribal members who were consulted about the part of Tallac the snow melts in a shape of a cross thought of it as an X. The snow melt meant that winter is over and summer is here,” Bernadette Nieto, Washoe Tribe administrator in Gardnerville, Nev., said. “Our tribal people say everything in our environment is important to us, but there wasn’t anything specifically significant about the cross or X on Tallac.”

It makes sense the Washoe would not see a cross since that is a Christian symbol that white people brought to the basin; it wasn’t something the Washoe were familiar with until then.

Through the years Bill Kingman, one-time South Shore radio guru and local history buff, has heard that when the snow creating the X or cross melts it would signify a big winter was about to arrive.

Dave Borges, local chiropractor and expert on Tahoe history, laughed when first asked about the cross. It’s just folklore, he assures.

The snow cross on Mount Tallac is distinct on June 1, top, while the X barely has any white stuff left on Aug. 1. (Images: Kathryn Reed)

It speaks volumes that Borges puts talk of the snow cross having significance in the same category as Tahoe Tessie.

One then has to wonder how such nonsense gets into the mainstream lexicon.

For starters, the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority is perpetuating the myth that the snow cross/X matters to the tribe.

“The Washoe have multiple beliefs including that if the cross does fully melt out before next winter, there would be record snow. FYI: This happened prior to the jaw-dropping 2010-11 season,” the Visit Lake Tahoe website says.

Maybe the tourism bureau would like to fact check its content.

While Mount Tallac at 9,735 feet is not the tallest mountain in the basin, it is the most prominent and well known. It stands out when driving on certain roads, while boating, sitting on the beach, hiking, skiing—it is always a beacon or landmark of sorts for those on the South Shore.

Even though the snow completely melted this summer from the rocks that hold the snow in to from the cross or X, don’t read more into it. Mother Nature will do what she wants no matter whether the symbol on the mountain is gone or remains when the first real snow flies and begins to accumulate again.

Note: A version of this story first appeared in the Tahoe Mountain News.