Lover’s Leap: Tahoe Edition

“Up in Lake Tahoe, there’s a place called Lover’s Leap.  Once there was an old Native American who jumped off it to his death because his girlfriend had left him.  So now they call it Lover’s Leap.”

“Lover’s Leap” is a common nickname for places both in the United States and all over the world.  This particular variation, specified by the informant to be a cliff in Tahoe, has a tragically romantic story that’s often associated with places named Lover’s Leap, though it is more localized by making the Lover who Leaped a Native American (an aspect that’s inconsequential to the story itself, but makes it seem more realistic).  Heights where it is possible to commit suicide by jumping often have pieces of folklore attached describing people who did just that — and the concept of a Lover’s Leap is simply one of the more popular version of those pieces of folklore.