In 1913, the Lake Tahoe Protective Association wrote to the Assistant Secretary of Commerce requesting "in the neighborhood of twenty-five buoys" as navigational aids for Lake Tahoe. In 1916, $15,000 was appropriated for the construction of "lights and day beacons" for marking the lake. (Amendment S.21, July 17, 1916)

The initial plan called for navigational buoys to be placed at Zephyr Cove, Emerald Bay, and Logan House Shoal. In addition, a lighthouse was built at Rubicon Point - "A flashing light on a small wooden lamp house at an elevation of about 200 feet above the surface of Lake Tahoe." (Recommendation as Aids to Navigation, Oct. 17, 1918). The keeper was paid $180 annually, and was "required to furnish his own launch for visiting and recharging the light and in addition to shipping and receiving supplies for the light will be required to make a short trip each night to a point from which the light can be observed, there being no year around resident on the lake who can properly inspect the light from his residence." (Department of Commerce, August 18, 1919). In 1919, Rubicon Point was lit at as cost of $800.

In 1921, the Lake Tahoe Railway and Transportation Company and other local mariners requested the light be moved to nearby Sugar Pine Point (information board, D.L. Bliss State Park). Rubicon Point was discontinued.

The state of California acquired the area, which is now D.L. Bliss State Park, in 1929. By 1997, vandalism and neglect led Lighthouse Digest magazine to put Rubicon Point on its lighthouse "Doomsday List." Renovations in 2001 have stabilized the structure, and preserved this unusual navigational aid.

References (see links)

Lighthouse or Outhouse, Hanley (source of government documents)
Endangered Lighthouses, Roberts and Jones p. 88
Lighthouse Digest (doomsday list)