Eerie ‘ghost lake’ reemerges 130 years after vanishing

A lake in California has returned after 130 years and has taken a whopping amount of land with it.

Land owners have found themselves in quite a pickle due to the return of this ‘ghost lake’.

The Tulare Lake in California’s San Joaquin Valley isn’t littered with ghosts, but the reality is certainly horrifying for some people.

The lake began to dry up back late 1850s through deliberate action in hopes of considerably reshaping the land.

This massively destabilized indigenous communities, as well as local wildlife.

The lake once spanned over 100 miles long and 30 miles wide, and began to bounce back in 2023, with winter storms across California and snowmelt from Sierra Nevada playing a significant role.

So far, it has drowned an estimated 94,000 acres of farmland and could expand even further.

Despite the issues this has caused, this makes for quite a good picture(Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)

A researcher formerly at Northeastern University, Vivian Underhill, has been studying the phenomenon, and spoke to Northeastern Global News about the odd occurrence.

She said: “Tulare Lake was the largest body of fresh water west of the Mississippi River. It’s really difficult to imagine that now.

“Once, 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.”

The expert also highlighted the efforts that were made to destabilize the indigenous tribe in order to claim the land.

The indigenous Tachi Yokut tribe called part of the valley home and it proved to be central to their lives. However, this changed when the state drained the lake in a process called ‘reclamation’.

This saw hundreds of irrigation canals and basins constructed in order to drive water away from the lake.

Underhill added: “If people could drain that land, they would be granted ownership of parts of that land. So there was a big incentive for white settlers to start doing that work.”

At least some of the wildlife are happy about the return of the lake(Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)

When this process proved successful, the lake dried up entirely, and ultimately freed up hundred thousand acres of farmland, while at the same time forcing the tribe's people off the land.

While this change has seen local animals return, including ducks and other water fowl, there are also serious issues that could arise.

The lake’s water continues to rise and is submerging privately-owned land as well as storage sheds that contain concerning materials, like fertilizer, manure, and electrical wires.

In addition to this, this isn’t the first time the ghost lake has returned. In fact, it is the fifth time Tulare Lake has come back since 1890.

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