But his impassioned words were wasted on the desert air of the Sagebrush State.

He could not muster enough votes to enact his indignation into a law, and the calm surface of Lake Tahoe was unruffled by the tempestuous commotion raging in legislative halls at Carson City.
It was thus that the beautiful, euphonious, and significant name of "Tahoe" was first placed on my own map, and subsequently appeared on all other maps of the State, because it was universally accepted as a fitting substitute for the former name of "Bigler." A traveled writer refers to the Lake and the name selected in these terms: "Thus it was that we went to Lake Tahoe, the beautiful 'Big Water' of the Washoe Indians--Tahoe with the indigo shade of its waters emphasized by its snow-capped setting.

The very first glance lifts one's soul above the petty cares of the lower valleys, and one feels the significance of the Indian title--'Big Water'-- not referring to size alone, but to the greatness of influence, just as the all-pervading Power is the 'Big Spirit.'" One would naturally think that there had been changes enough.

But no! In spite of the fact that the Federal government had accepted the change to Tahoe, and that the popular usage had signified the general approval of the name, the Hon.

W.A.King, of Nevada County, during the Governorship of Haight, in California, introduced into the assembly a bill declaring that Lake Bigler should be "the official name of the said lake and the only name to be regarded as legal in official documents, deeds, conveyances, leases and other instruments of writing to be placed on state or county records, or used in reports made by state, county or municipal officers." Historian Hittell thus comments on this: "The bill, which appears to have been well modulated to the taste and feelings of the legislature, went through with great success.