South Lake Tahoe is the most populous city in El Dorado County, California, United States, in the Sierra Nevada. The population was 21,403 at the 2010 census, down from 23,609 at the 2000 census. As its name suggests, the city is located on the southern shore of Lake Tahoe. The east end of the city, on the California-Nevada state line right next to the town of Stateline, Nevada, is mainly geared towards tourism, with T-shirt shops, restaurants, hotels, and Heavenly Mountain Resort with the Nevada casinos just across the state line in Stateline, Nevada. The city extends about 5 miles (8 km) west-southwest along U.S. Route 50, also known as Lake Tahoe Boulevard. The western end of town is mainly residential, and clusters around "The Y" (new intersection October 2008), the X-shaped intersection of US 50, State Route 89, and the continuation of Lake Tahoe Boulevard after it loses its federal highway designation.

The city incorporated in 1965 by combining the previously unincorporated communities of Al Tahoe, Bijou, Bijou Park, Stateline, Tahoe Valley, and Tallac Village. A post office was established in 1967. In 1991, Jaycee Lee Dugard (age 11 at the time) was abducted from a bus stop in South Lake Tahoe; she was found alive in Antioch, California in 2009.

Gambling arrived at the Lake in 1944, when Harvey's Wagon Wheel Saloon and Gambling Hall opened as one of the area's first gaming establishments (technically on the Nevada side of the state border in the South Lake Tahoe (Nevada gaming area). But competition soon sprang up and so did the need for more permanent accommodations. By the 1950s, roads began to be plowed year-round, enabling access to permanent residences. When the 1960 Winter Olympics came to Squaw Valley, Lake Tahoe was put firmly on the map as the skiing center of the western United States.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Lake_Tahoe,_California