Currently, parts of California are suffering from brutal droughts.
In the last decade, the San Joaquin Vally has experienced some of the driest conditions
in over 100 years.
However, this parched landscape wasn’t always this way.
What is now huge fields of monoculture crops used to be a landscape of lush forests and
fertile wetlands.
Tulare Lake, the largest fresh body of water west of the Mississippi River, once existed
here.
One hundred years ago, the San Joquin Valley was a biodiverse ecosystem; now, it is farmlands
surrounded by desert.
How could the 9th largest lake in the United States just disappear?
Where did the water go, and could it ever come back?
Let’s find out.
Long before the indigenous peoples of the Americas ever reached what would become central
California, there was a massive 19,000-square-mile body of water called Lake Corcoran that covered
much of the region.
Corcoran was a major source of freshwater for flora and fauna living in the area around
600,000 years ago.
Approximately 200,000 years later, it would all but disappear.
Like many lakes in the region, Corcoran would change in size throughout the year.
Its waters would evaporate in the warmer months and provide rain to the Siera Nevada mountains
to the west.
The overflow would course down rivers providing the surrounding area with mineral-rich water,
eventually emptying into Monoray Bay and a number of other tributaries.
What made this lake so impressive was its massive size, which begs the question: how
could a lake spanning thousands of miles just disappear?
It likely had to do with glacial melting and an increase in precipitation.
At first, this doesn’t seem to make much sense.
How could increased glacial runoff and more rain cause a massive lake to go dry?
The reason for this phenomenon was that so much water emptied into Lake Corcoran that
it caused the lake to overflow.
Like an overfilled glass, the water cascaded over the lake’s bank and carved a series
of outlets through the Carquinez Strait, emptying out into what would become Monterey Bay.
This led to a catastrophic draining event that caused millions of gallons of water to
rush out of Corcoran Lake and into the ocean every second.
The drainage of Corcoran Lake left extremely fertile wetlands in the middle of California.
Where the lake once was, forests, swamps, and seasonal flood plains developed over time.
However, not all of the water disappeared.
Three major lakes still remained; the last remnants of the once gigantic body of water
that had been Corcoran Lake.
In order from smallest to largest, these three bodies of fresh water in central California
were Kern Lake, Buena Vista Lake, and Tulare Lake.
This last one would disappear due to a series of unfortunate events and bad decisions made
by greedy farmers in the 1900s.
When eastern settlers came to Central California, Tulare Lake was the largest freshwater lake
west of the Mississippi and the 9th largest in all of the United States.
Water from the Sierra Nevada mountains flowed into Tulare Lake each year when the snow melted,
and when the rains came, they replenished the water supply that was lost during the
summer due to evaporation.
This meant that Tulare changed in size throughout the year, which created extremely fertile
wetlands.
On especially rainy years, Tulare Lake would overflow, causing water to rush through the
valley and send a surge of excess water into the San Joaquin River, which flowed north.
The rivers would flood due to the influx of water, causing the entire region to become
rich with precious nutrients and minerals that vegetation needed in order to grow.
Fresh silt would be deposited along the riverways, and lush forests grew in the surrounding area.
The first documented records indicate that the lake covered around 1,000 square miles
and was home to an abundance of fish, clams, mussels, and waterfowl, all of which were
important sources of sustenance for the indigenous peoples living there.
California was home to hundreds of unique Native American tribes, each with their own
cultures and belief systems.
All of these groups were either forced off their homeland or slaughtered by the eastern
settlers coming to the region as part of the manifest destiny era.
These settlers came to the west coast to tame the land, cut down the forests, and strip
the environment of its natural resources.
And it was these practices that would eventually lead to the disappearance of the largest lake
in the region.
As more and more explorers headed west and made it to the Central Valley of California,
word reached the rest of the country that the area was full of fertile land perfect
for farming.
Not only that but once the indigenous peoples were forced out of the region, there was plenty
of cheap land to go around.
This was obviously all just an illusion, as the destruction of the environment and its
native people would eventually come at a great cost.
Water from the life-sustaining lake was siphoned off to provide irrigation for farmers who
were growing various crops in the region.
A series of dams and levees that diverted water that normally flowed into the lake initially
caused the water supply to diminish.
Each year less and less water would end up in Tulare Lake, which resulted in it never
being fully replenished.
Canals and irrigation ditches were built to siphon off water from Tulare Lake so the fields
popping up all around it could be irrigated.
Each year, more and more water was either drained from Lake Tulare or the rivers feeding
into it.
It was an incredibly lucrative business model until what happened next.
By the 1920s, Tulare Lake had been heavily drained.
The lake was only a fraction of its original size, and there just wasn’t enough water
flowing into it to replenish what was being taken out by the farmers.
The fertile wetlands were quickly being changed into monoculture farmland that was not hospitable
for native animals or resistant to changes in climate.
This would later become a huge problem.
But it was one man who would deal the final blow to the already threatened lake.
A man who didn’t care if all the water in Tulare Lake was drained if it meant he could
grow his cash crops.
Enter J.G.
Boswell.
J.G.
Boswell was a cotton farmer from Georgia who had fallen on hard times.
His entire crop on the east coast had been wiped out by pests called boll weevils.
These insects ravaged cotton farms across the region.
However, word reached the farmers in the east that there was plenty of fertile land out
west for anyone who made the trip.
It was in San Joaquin Valley, where Tulare Lake was located, that J.G.
Boswell set his sights.
He packed everything he owned into a bag and moved west with enough cash to buy fertile
land and start over.
In 1921 J.G.
Boswell found a large plot of land beside Tulare Lake for sale.
This land was relatively new, as the waters of the lake were retreating further and further
each year due to overuse.
Boswell saw this investment as an opportunity.
The land around the lake was incredibly fertile, and he could divert whatever water was left
in the lake to irrigate his cotton fields.
Although his farms back in Georgia had been destroyed, J.G.
Boswell was still a wealthy man.
He was able to procure the land using his savings and had enough left over to persuade
the local government to give him unobstructed access to the waters of Tulare Lake, even
if it meant bleeding it dry.
Boswell and his nephew J.G.
Boswell II who would take over after his uncle, lobbied to have more dams built across the
rivers that fed Tulare Lake to divert even more water to their fields.
The government agreed to the Boswells’ request, and slowly but surely, the Boswell company
monopolized most of the water in the region, especially the water that was already in the
lake and flowing into the valley from the mountains.
The water supply of Tulare Lake had greatly diminished in the years leading up to Boswell’s
acquisition of the land around it, but it was J.G.
Boswell and his nephew who finally bled the body of water dry.
By the 1930s, the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi had been completely
drained, and its lakebed had been converted into cotton farms.
Today, the J.G.
Boswell Company is the largest producer of cotton in the United States.
They also are a leading grower of tomatoes and alfalfa hay as well.
However, the company’s worth isn’t so much the result of good products but the fact
that they control most of the water rights in the San Joaquin Valley.
This is the result of shady dealings in the early 20th century and the diverting of water
from several rivers flowing out of the Sierra Nevada Mountains into their farmlands.
These very rivers once replenished the waters of Tulare Lake, and now they are used to irrigate
massive fields of monoculture crops.
But the consequences of draining the 9th largest lake in the United States extend well beyond
monopolizing water and destroying the habitat of numerous indigenous species.
The severe droughts that the San Joaquin Valley is experiencing are the result of climate
change, which has been exacerbated in the region due to the loss of Tulare Lake.
The large body of water contributed a great deal of the moisture that fell as rain in
the area.
Without this large body of water, less water evaporates into the atmosphere, which means
less rain fell on the region.
The change in climate has influenced growing conditions as well.
Without the replenishment of water from the rains and the low flow levels from the Sierra
Nevadas, the farms need to procure water from somewhere else.
In this case, farmers such as the J.G.
Boswell company and other agriculturalists are pumping groundwater out from under the
landscape to make up for the loss of water on the surface.
This obviously isn’t a great idea because groundwater takes much longer to replenish
than surface water.
In the long run, this will hurt not only the agriculturalists but the residents living
in the valley as well.
To be fair, J.G.
Boswell is not the only person or company to blame for the loss of Tulare Lake.
Other farms also used and are still using these harmful practices, and the government
is doing very little to stop them.
The agriculture companies in the San Joaquin Valley have pumped out enough groundwater
to cause the entire landscape to sink by 28 feet since Tulare Lake was drained in the
1930s.
As this practice continues, the ground will sink further and further until the groundwater
runs out.
At that point, there won’t be enough water to supply all of the farms in the area, and
an agricultural collapse will ensue.
This is terrifying as Central California produces half of all U.S. fruits and vegetables.
It’s only a matter of time before these harmful practices cause the groundwater under
the valley to dry up completely, just like Tulare Lake did.
It will be a huge blow to U.S. citizens that rely on these fruits and vegetables for their
subsistence.
Prices of tomatoes, nuts, grapes, and many other types of produce will skyrocket until
an alternate source of crops can be secured.
Even worse than the hoarding of water by the agricultural companies in the region is the
fact that they are actively harming indigenous species and migratory birds as well.
Many fields are flooded after a harvest to remove salts and minerals that have built
up in the soil, which could make the land less productive in the next growing season.
However, when these evaporation pools sit for long periods of time, waterfowl use them
as a stopping point along their migratory path.
The water in the evaporation pools can be contaminated with chemicals that have been
shown to lead to complications in certain species of birds.
For example, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, birds who feed and nest
in these evaporation ponds can ingest large amounts of selenium.
Studies have shown that selenium increases embryo deformities resulting in lower birth
rates in certain bird populations and putting them in danger of population decline.
The loss of Tulare Lake, the 9th largest in all of the United States, is a cautionary
tale.
It is likely too late to stop or reverse the damage done to the San Joaquin Valley.
The agricultural companies are too powerful, and the government allowed them to exploit
the land for too long.
It is highly probable that the practices that led to the drainage of the lake will also
cause the collapse of the agricultural sector in the region as the groundwater dries up
and the droughts get worse.
It should probably come as no surprise that completely depleting the largest freshwater
lake west of the Mississippi was a terrible thing to do.
However, it seems like rather than changing their practices, the agricultural businesses
in the area are doubling down on their mismanagement of water and will not stop until there is
no water left in the San Joaquin Valley.
Now watch “What If the USA Broke Up?”
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