Tulare Lake (reclaimed)

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Once the largest natural lake west of the Great Lakes, in 1849 it was 570 square miles. It was drained to "reclaim" land for farmland, destroying the ecology of the southern San Joaquin Valley in the process.

An 1892 description by Thomas H. Thompson, a historian of the city of Tulare, said: "The area of the lake at highest water (220 feet above sea level) was 760 square miles."

In his History of Tulare County and Kings County, which was published in 1926, J. Larry Smith stated that the area surrounding the lake "abounded in game and was full of edible fish."

There is evidence that its shores were a favorite habitation for Indian
Tribes and a stopping place for the aborigines and wild animals who
made their seasonal migrations across the valley from the Sierras to the
sea, and returning. An 1850 account told of "bands of elk, deer and
antelope in such numbers that they actually darkened the plains for miles
and looked in the distance like great herds of cattle."

It was an important fishery, shipping thousands of pounds of fish to San Fransisco and was also the Western hemisphere's southernmost terminus of the Chinook Salmon run. Thousands of migrating birds along the Pacific flyway would also stop here during their migration. The lake was even written about by Mark Twain.

In 2023, major portions of the lake began to re-emerge thanks in part to a wet weather pattern.

Bibliography:
www.calflytech.com/kingshistory/tulelake.html
www.invisible5.org/index.php?page=tulare