Tulare Lake
Freshwater dry lake in the southern San Joaquin Valley, California, United States / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Tulare Lake (/tʊˈlɛəri/ ⓘ) or Tache Lake (Yokuts: Pah-áh-su, Pah-áh-sē) is a freshwater lake in the southern San Joaquin Valley, California, United States. Historically, Tulare Lake was once the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi River.[2] For thousands of years, from the Paleolithic onward, Tulare Lake was a uniquely rich area, which supported perhaps the largest population of Native Americans north of present-day Mexico.[3]
Tulare Lake | |
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Location | San Joaquin Valley Kings County, California |
Coordinates | 36°3′0″N 119°47′17″W |
Type | dry lake |
Primary inflows | Kaweah River Kern River Kings River Tule River White River |
Primary outflows | Evaporation, historically underground seepage to San Joaquin River, occasional flow to Suisun Bay[1] |
Basin countries | United States |
Max. length | dry bed 81 mi (130 km) |
Surface area | dry bed 690 sq mi (1,780 km2) |
Average depth | dry |
Water volume | 6.5 million acre-feet (8.0 km3) at capacity |
Surface elevation | 187 ft (57 m)
203 ft (62 m) 210 ft (64 m) drains into Fresno Slough |
Settlements | Hanford, CA Corcoran, CA Alpaugh, CA |
References | U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Tulare Lake |
In the second half of the 19th century, Tulare Lake was dried up by diverting its tributary rivers for agricultural irrigation and municipal water uses. In modern times, it is usually a dry lake with residual wetlands and marshes. The lake reappears during unusually high levels of rainfall or snow melt as it did in 1942, 1969, 1983, 1997, 1998, and 2023.