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!

Hardly working or working hard? Caught again by the Webcam at SpoonerLake.com

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

Still Lookin' for High Sierra,
Lake Tahoe and beyond?

Web Highsierra.com

Lake Tahoe Guides: Lake Tahoe Skiing, Snowboarding & Cross Country Skiing Lake Tahoe Beaches and Picnic Areas | Campgrounds & Trailer Parks Lake Tahoe Children's Activities | Hiking & Trail Running | Mountain Biking Lake Tahoe Golf Courses | Gigantic Lake Tahoe Lodging Guide Lake Tahoe Online Casinos | Weather | Ski Reports | Wedding Resources Still Lookin? Qwik-Go-Tahoe | Site Map

Highsierra.com ©1995-2008 Aufrance Associates Lake Tahoe, NV All Rights Reserved.