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Not plant related, but equally fascinating: There used to be a lake bigger than Lake Tahoe in California between Fresno and Bakersfield. It It was the large
by stevecalifornia 10y ago
Not plant related, but equally fascinating: There used to be a lake bigger than Lake Tahoe in California between Fresno and Bakersfield. It It was the largest fresh water lake west of the Great Lakes (by surface area). It was drained for agriculture.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulare_Lake https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulare_Lake
- kingmanaz 10y agoFor a good read on what happened to Lake Tulare, read "The King of California". The world's largest cotton plantation now sits in the lakebed and holds primary water rights. Pink sheet stock. Ticker BWEL.
- daodedickinson 10y agorequired reading on the topic: http://www.amazon.com/California-Indians-Their-Environment-Introduction/dp/0520256905 http://www.amazon.com/California-Indians-Their-Environment-I...
- ParadigmBlender 10y agoI went to the library and browsed the book on your recommendation. It is indeed great. It includes a few photos and maps as well. I will have to find the time to read it.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- j_s 10y agoKindle edition: http://amzn.com/dp/B0034XRFNK http://amzn.com/dp/B0034XRFNK
- hinkley 10y agoDid you know there's a group trying to create rice that doesn't absorb arsenic? It turns out one of the only things that can grow on depleted cotton land is rice, but the pesticides used against weevils contain arsenic, and for some weird reason people don't like to eat rice full of arsenic!
- ashitlerferad 10y agoSell sell sell
- bradleyjg 10y agoThere's a similar story in Israel. There used to be two lakes on the Jordan River (which isn't much a river anymore but that's a different story). The famous Sea of Galilee (Kinneret) and one further to the north called Lake Hula (Merom) that existed until it was drained in the 1950s.
- ParadigmBlender 10y agoI had no idea about this facinating part of California history. To think I drove by near the spot dozzens of times between SF and LA wihout ever knowing. Thank you!
- gricardo99 10y agoI discovered this historical trivia myself by chance not long ago. While stopping in Kettleman City off of I-5, there's a retail complex called Bravo Farms. Inside, near the restrooms there's a map on the wall showing a massive "Tulare Lake". I could hardly believe such a large lake existed in this area not too long ago and it's mostly forgotten. Google image search, and I found someone else posted a pic of the map: http://ink361.com/app/users/ig-2115609400/eccentricculinary/photos/ig-1020570363903657890_2115609400 http://ink361.com/app/users/ig-2115609400/eccentricculinary/...
- paavokoya 10y agoForget it Jake, it's Chinatown
- losteric 10y agoI wonder how all these lost lakes impacted the regional climate
- samstave 10y agoI've often thought about this. I've wondered; if we built a huge trench from the ocean into the Sahara desert, what would the environmental impact be??
- jp555 10y agoI can imagine it would quickly be filled in by sand. The Sahara is a slow moving ocean of sand particles.
- blackbagboys 10y agoPeople have been making plans about how to flood parts of the Sahara for about 100 years. Some of the more colorful options involved using buried nuclear warheads as trench-digging tools. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qattara_Depression_Project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qattara_Depression_Project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahara_Sea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahara_Sea
- ijk 10y agoThe Amazon rainforest would die. [1] How much of it actually would die is obviously depends on factors like how big the replacement lake is and how much it affects the phosphorus, but I'm constantly amazed by how seemly separate systems are actually intimately interconnected. [1] http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/nasa-satellite-reveals-how-much-saharan-dust-feeds-amazon-s-plants http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/nasa-satellite-reveals-h...
- hasslein 10y agoI would highly recommend "Cadillac Desert: The American West and its Disappearing Water;" it goes into fair detail about Lake Tulare. Fascinating read.
- j_s 10y agoThanks for the recommendation! Linking here to make sure all the "HN Reads"-ish tools pick it up: http://amzn.com/dp/B001RTKIUA http://amzn.com/dp/B001RTKIUA
- kafkaesq 10y agoThere used to be a fairly sizable indigenous community (referred to by English-speaking settlers as the Yokuts) in the vicinity of that lake. Some 70,000 strong at their pre-contact height (one of the highest regional populations in North America): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yokuts_people https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yokuts_people As a people they were apparently "drained" nearly out of existence, also, through the combined efforts of Mexican and European settlers, around the time that lake was drained (down to an estimated population of 600 by 1910).
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- halugalugh 10y agoI got a contact high reading this
- 13of40 10y agoWow - that's actually pretty mindblowing. I lived in Porterville (on the east side of the lake, apparently) when I was a teenager, and my dad was an archaeologist, so he must have known about it but I don't recall him mentioning it. Explains why that whole drive north from there is so flat, though.