Indigenous people have called Truckee-Tahoe home for thousands of years, beginning with the Martis in 2000 BC. More recently, the Washoe Tribe of California and Nevada occupied these lands and today, are headquartered in Gardnerville, NV. Ancient petroglyphs and grinding stones can be found at Donner Summit.

Since the dawn of America’s history, immigrants have played a key part in nearly all of the engineering marvels. In Chicago, the Irish helped build the canals to reverse the river. In New York, Italians played an important role in many public works projects in the 19th century like the subway. For Truckee, the unsung heroes of building the Transcontinental railroad were the Chinese immigrants. If it wasn’t for their hard work, the Truckee we know now wouldn’t exist.