Tulare Lake

Our Phantom Lake, A "Sportsman's Delight"

   During the early history of the San Joaquin Valley, most of the land
which was later to become Kings County was covered by a large fresh
water lake, said to have been the largest in the western United States.
Supplied with waters brought from the Sierra-Nevada mountains via the
Kings, Kaweah and Tule Rivers, this body of water was named Tulare
Lake for the tules, or bullrushes, which grew thickly around it. 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."

   Flint arrowheads and stone cooking utensils have been found in great
abundance upon the various shorelines, which have marked the periodic
changes in water area as the cycles of "wet" and "dry" years have rolled
on.  Bones of the mastodon and other prehistoric animals have been
plowed up on farms located within what was once the lake bed.
   Pioneers were catching fish in the lake in the latter half of the last
century. Commercial fishermen used huge nets to catch perch, mackerel,
lake trout and even salmon. At one time, the United States government
stocked the lake heavily with bass.

   Professional fishermen, during the 1870s and 1880s claimed to have
caught up to eight tons of fish from the lake with only one haul of a
horse-drawn seine. Waterfowl, fish, frogs legs -- and even turtles -- were
sent to faraway dining establishments. Tulare Lake terrapin soups and
stews were commonly on the menus of hotels throughout the Pacific Coast.

   Julius Jacobs wrote in his The Story of Kings County that millions of
fish were still breeding in the lake at the end of the 1890s and that
sometimes they could be "shoveled up by the very tubful." Those varieties
which were not particularly good eating were cooked and fed to the pigs.

   The tules and other grasses that grew so thickly around the lake made it
an ideal habitat for ducks, geese, plover, snipe and curlew which the
sportsmen were able to bag by the hundreds and thousands. Reportedly, a
sportsman could walk the short distance from his Lemoore home to the
shores of the lake, shoot as many ducks as he wished and walk back to his
home in plenty of time for his evening meal.

   The vast lake has been eliminated by the march of progress. Beginning
with the congressional passage of the Swamp and Overflowed Lands Act in
1852, its demise was certain. Reclamation districts were formed. Each
district built levees to protect its own holdings. In the meantime,
beginning in the early 1870s, much of the water was diverted into irrigation
canals.  What was once lake bottom has become some of the richest
agricultural land in the world. The building of the Pine Flat Dam and
Reservoir was, virtually, the final nail in the coffin of Tulare Lake. Still,
in years of particularly high precipitation, the phantom lake
-- like a wet phoenix -- still tries to arise.

For additional information on Tulare Lake Click here
A QuickTime VR (Netscape/MS Internet Explorer plugin) panorama of Tulare Lake