Cleanup of Lake Tahoe produces no trace of monsters or mobsters

They found no trace of a mythical sea monster, no sign of mobsters in concrete shoes or long-lost treasurechests.

But scuba divers who spent a year cleaning up Lake Tahoe’s entire 72-mile shoreline have come away with what they hope will prove much more valuable: tons and tons of trash.

In addition to removing 25,000 pounds of underwater litter since last May, divers and volunteers have been meticulously sorting and logging the types and GPS locations of the waste.

The dozens of dives that concluded this week were part of a first-of-its-kind effort to learn more about the source and potential harm caused by plastics and other pollutants in the alpine lake on the California-nevada line.

Cleanup organizers say one of the things locals ask most is whether they’ve found any gangsters’ remains near the north shore. That’s where Frank Sinatra lost his gaming license for allegedly fraternizing with organized crime bosses at his CalNeva hotel-casino in the 1960s.

The recovered debris mostly has consisted of things like bottles, tires, fishing gear and sunglasses.

But Colin West, founder of the nonprofit group that launched the project, Clean Up the Lake, said there have been some surprises.

Divers think they spotted shipwreck planks near Dead Man’s Point, where tribal tales tell of a Loch-ness-monster-like creature — later dubbed “Tahoe Tessie — living beneath Cave Rock.

They’ve also turned up a few “No Littering” signs, engine blocks, lamp posts, a diamond ring and “those funny, fake plastic owls that sit on boats to scare off birds,” West said.