Photo Credit: Carlos Avila Gonzalez / SF Chronicle
Tulare Lake was once the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi, covering 800 square miles in the Central Valley of California. To put its size into perspective, Tulare Lake was roughly 4 times the size of Lake Tahoe.
The lake's decline began in the late 19th century, when settlers after the Gold Rush began diverting water from the rivers that fed Tulare Lake to irrigate their crops.
In the 1930s, the federal government initiated a massive project to drain the remaining water from Tulare Lake and convert the surrounding area into farmland. The project involved the construction of a network of canals and drainage ditches, as well as the installation of pumps to remove the remaining water. Changing the natural flow of water and transforming the Sierra Nevada snowmelt into an intricate system of irrigation.
Today, the Central Valley of California is one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world, with farms and ranches covering more than 22,500 square miles. The region is particularly known for producing a wide variety of crops, including almonds, pistachios, grapes, citrus fruits, tomatoes, and lettuce, among others.
This is not the first time that the lake has seen a resurgence. In 1938 and 1955, Tulare Lake experienced flooding, which led to the construction of the Terminus and Success Dams on the Kaweah and Tule Rivers in Tulare County, as well as the Pine Flat Dam on the Kings River in Fresno County. While typically dry, the lake has reappeared during floods caused by unusually high levels of rainfall or snow melt. Back in 1983, when California saw similar weather patterns, the lake bed covered 82,000 acres and took 2 years for the lake to completely dry out. Due to its ability to reappear during floods, the lake has been referred to as a "phantom lake" or "the lake that will not die". Today, some experts say that in 2023, the lake could span as far as 100,000 acres.
