" Once, Underhill says, there was so much water that a steamship could carry "agricultural supplies from the Bakersfield area up to Fresno and then up to San Fr

" Once, Underhill says, there was so much water that a steamship could carry "agricultural supplies from the Bakersfield area up to Fresno and then up to San Francisco" — a distance of nearly 300 miles. " It'd be nice to re-establish a small channel, only open in big years, like it used to be.