BigBasin was designed by the William I. Chang (China) in 2001, who named it after a local mountain formation in Northern California. He also suggested to call it Tahoe after the famous Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada. At that time Chang was working for Sentius Corporation in Palo Alto. The game is variant of Cascades. William I. Chang is the chief scientist of Baidu Inc. in Beijing, China, and a recognized expert in search technology, online community and advertising business models. BigBasin has a rather unusual "leave-a-trail" mechanism akin to sowing. The game is still experimental.