Tulare Lake
| Tulare Lake | |
|---|---|
A group of men 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 |
| 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 Corcoran Alpaugh |
| 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 an ephemeral 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 in surface area. 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.
In the second half of the 19th century, Tulare Lake was dried up by diverting its tributaries for 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 snowmelt as it did in 1942, 1969, 1983, 1997, 1998, and 2023.