The ‘phantom’ Tulare Lake returns with a vengeance
A winter of epic snow and rain had brought California’s “phantom lake” back to life — and threatened towns and farms in the process.Once the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi River, Tulare Lake was largely drained in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as the rivers that fed it were dammed and diverted for agriculture.This month, after powerful storms, rivers that dwindled during the drought are swollen with runoff from heavy rains and snow, and are flowing full from the Sierra Nevada into the valley,…