| Highsierra.com
started out in the mid-90s in a cabin on the Truckee River
meadow on the edge of the forest...
...just outside the town of
South Lake Tahoe, where your hosts Tom and Mary Kay Aufrance
of Aufrance Associates did business in their loft with a high
speed phone connection, several Web servers and a batch of phone
lines to provide full Internet services, including local dial-in
acounts and email as well as Web sites. It was quite a sight to see
the enormous bundle of phone wires that was strung from the phone
pole to our rustic remote chalet in those days!
The banner on
top of every page on the site, with a rainbow shining in front
of the ridge up to Mt. Tallac,
was taken from a photo Mary Kay snapped from the deck of the
cabin.
She
took the photo at 6:30AM one morning with an old pre-digital
Minolta SLR camera and digitized it for the Web site by using
a big old flat-bed scanner hooked up to a Mac Quadra 650.
With that beautiful view of the meadow, mountains
and wildlife, plus an appreciation for outdoor activities, the
Aufrances embarked on several Internet ventures, and they are
still at it today.
From the loft of the cabin to the world, Highsierra.com
became the first site in the entire world to have its own search
for real estate, because it was the beta site for the Aufrances'
software Real Estate Internet™. REI was the first Internet
Multiple Listing Service (MLS), and it is still in use on Highsierra.com
as well as elsewhere worldwide. Today, the Highsierra.com real
estate and lodging search includes all listings from all the
local realty board MLSes as well as additional hotel and motel
properties, making it unique and very popular among Lake Tahoe
visitors and residents.
Back to those early days of Highsierra.com -
instead of going big time and seeking out venture capital to
ride the Internet boom roller coaster, Tom and Mary Kay were
happy to invest their business efforts into developing software
services and a business that they could run as their own small
an independent shop. Today, they still enjoy the benefits of
running things on their own, and Highsierra.com is full of search
engines and wizards and other spiffy features that they created.
And the Aufrances are still enjoying doing business and living
in the Sierra Nevadas, just 20 min. down the road from Lake Tahoe's
Spooner Summit.
By the way, the old scanner on the Mac that
Mary Kay used for making the site's first images - it's still
running and in use! (But they have upgraded to a digital camera.)
"Although
we have grown out of the little loft with skylights where we
viewed many a starry Tahoe night while developing Web sites and
software, we still enjoy getting out there to hike, run or bike
the trails, ski in the Winter and more. We have many customers
who, like us, started on the Web in the mid-90s and are still
with us! We're grateful for the business relationships and friends
that Highsierra.com has prospered! Thank you for using Highsierra.com"
Your
Web hosts,
Tom and Mary Kay
|
Caught again by the Webcam
at SpoonerLake.com
| Highsierra.com
Mini Blog
12/07/09 Big Snow Day!
Wahoo! It's snowing big! Check out the
Lake Tahoe Dam webcam to see! Enjoy the skiing as soon
a we dig out that is! And get ready for a Merry
Christmas!!!
9/6/09 Riding the Flume!
Riding the Tahoe Flume Trail from Spooner
Lake State Park was perfect today! Cool fall-is-coming
weather high up in the Sierras, but still a short-sleeves
and sun kind of day! If you have not done The Flume
Trail yet this year, there's still plenty of time. And,
you JUST MUST! You can even rent a bike and get a ride
back from our friends at Spooner
Lake Outdoor Company. Tell them Tom and Mary Kay
sent you!
5/7/09 Summer's Here
...and so are our advertisers including
Tahoe's best real estate agents and lodging providers.
The economy has taken its toll, but for Lake Tahoe visitors
that means only the best providers are weathering the
economic turmoil! All links and up and running and full
speed ahead to another fun summer at Lake Tahoe and
Northern Nevada.
What's new: hotel
booking agent...
Welcome to our new hotel and motel booking
agent, allowing you to book your reservations at Lake
Tahoe, Reno, Mammoth Lakes, Carson City and all over
the USA in fact! Try
it now.
5/21/08 Today's Tahoe News is back...
After a long time off, today's
Lake Tahoe News returns to our site! Thanks to Widgetmate,
we can bring you a great news ticker with headline news
from Lake Tahoe and the High Sierras.
5/19/08 Tons of data and searches...
Yes, we have Tons of Lake Tahoe data and more ways to search
and sort thru it! Since there are over 8,000 current listings from the regional
realty
boards plus
hotel
-
motel
- vacation
rentals
-
bed n' breakfasts, it can seem like just too much! So, today
I made a page that helps you to choose which search to use. It's here.
And, I hope it helps you to find the lodging or real estate you are looking for
at Lake Tahoe, Northern California and also the ENTIRE Northern Nevada Board
of Realtors MLS!
5/18/08 New ebay auction widgets...
Yesterday, I finished adding some ebay widgets. So, now you
will see related ebay auction information allover the place, and you can
see what Lake Tahoe
memorabilia or vacation rentals are for sale by ebay sellers. Most of the
widgets even tell how long you have to bid, in case you see something you
like. For example,
there's a widget for lodging here. And another for Lake
Tahoe memorabilia, here.
5/17/08 Youtube videos of Tahoe...
A couple of weeks ago, I started scouring youtube for interesting
videos by regular folks who have visited Lake Tahoe, and was impressed with
the creativity plus how evident it is that the video creators really love Lake
Tahoe. So, now you'll find these videos just sprinkled throughout the Web site,
wherever
they
seemed
most
appropriate.
My criteria for choosing videos was that they were non-commercial and had
no advertising, and otherwise just downright cute or charming. My fav.
5/14/08 A New Sitemap...
The site map is much improved. Just click on the link to it
in any header of any page. You will see loads of links that you may have
overlooked. It's here
5/01/08 Blog Start... We have made so many changes to improve
the site that I thought it would be a good idea to start posting this
blog. Hope you like it!
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About
Highsierra.com
