Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-08-11
MYSTERY OF TULARE.
A Secret Discovered Under the
Famous California Lake.
NOT BEEN LONG IN EXISTENCE,
Evidence That the Body of Water Has Been
There Only 200 Years.
PRESERVED TRUNKS OF ANCIENT TREES

FRESNO, Aug. 10-The low stage of the
water in Lake Tulare has brought to notice
a fact which appears to have considerable
value in pointing out an important geo.
| graphical change in Central California
within comparatively recent times. Where
the waters have receded grove of stumps
and broken trees have been brought to
view, partly buried in the mud. They evil
IDENTIFY grew where they now are found.
| Some of the trees lie PROSTATE on the bot
tom of the lake, while fragments of others
still stand as stumps and snags. But the
| roots of all are yet fast in the soil, where in
some past age they fourished as members
of forest Those that are now pros
trate were evidently torn up by the roots,
and the waters of the lake have never
moved from where they fell. although they
have been under water centuries, perhaps.
Others are still standing upright, although
their branches have disappeared and only
the broken trunks remain like snags in the
water.
Lake Tulare has been undergoing q steady
change since the waters of the rivers that
feed it have been led away for irrigation
purposes AS is generally known the lake
lies in the southern end Of the San Joaquin
Valley, and has no outlet. 1t is fed by
Kings river, Tulare river, Tule river, Ka-
weah river, and other smaller streams that
come in from the Sierra Nevada Mountains
on the east.
When First Known to Americans.
When this lake first became known to
Americans it was more than 80 miles long
and nearly the same distance in width, and
contained no less than 1000 square miles.
In seasons of drought it was probably
somewhat smaller, while in seasons Of much
rain its size was very much greater The
waters were diminished by evaporation,
except, perhaps, in times of very great
floods, when a portion of the surplus might
have overfowed the plains into the San
Joaquin river, 80 miles distant.
When irrigation Of the plains of Fresno
and Tulare counties was commenced the
water was led away from the rivers and was
taken out upon the plains. By this means
the quantity which the lake annually re-
went on as usual the natural consequence
was that the lake began to recede.
1t never was deep, not over 40 feet, per-
haps At the present time it is only a
fraction of its former depth. 1t has shrunken
away on account of the cutting off of its
supply of water from the rivers until Lake
Tulare exists now practically in name. 1t
occupies the shallow depression in the low
est part of the valley, while what formerly
was the bottom of the lake is now wheat
land and orchard.
Just on the edge of the water the rem
nant of the grove of trees is found Here is
kha< r.. cIo l.
gested. The trees evidently grew on dry
ground. They could not have grown under
water. When they were growing Lake
Tulare could not have been in existence.
The trees are older than the lake.
They are willow. and some of them are
two feet or more in diameter, such as now
grow in the bottom land along Kings river.
They grew where they are now found, and |
then the waters Of the lake overwhelmed |
them, and being under water, they have
been preserved from decay, and now are |
brought to view by the receding Of the
waters.
Not Long in Fxistencs
There seems to be but one theory by |
which the existence Of the submerged grove |
may be accounted for. The time may not |
have been very long ago when Lake Tulare |
did not exist. There is no dispute as to its /
origin by those who have investigated the |
subject. The causes are visible. There was |
n time when the waters of Kings, Tulare,
Tule and Kaweah rivers all flowed north |
ward unobstructed and reached the ocean |
through the channel of the San Joaquin.
The rivers that now discharge their waters
into Lake Tulare then probably emptied
into one river somewhere in the vicinity of |
the present lake, and from there flowed
northward along the lowest part of the val
lev and reached the San .Toaouin near the
present town of Mendoza, formerly Whites