| Tulare Lake | |
|---|---|
 A group of unidentified men and a dog camping at the shores of Tulare Lake, 1880 | |
  Tulare Lake | |
| Location | San Joaquin Valley Kings County, California |
| Coordinates | 36°3′0″N 119°47′17″W / 36.05000°N 119.78806°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 |
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]
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.
- ^ Latta 1999, "Tulare Lake".
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
SMMMwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Fleeman y Garcia 2022, p. 180.