The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, August 14, 1898, Page 19

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, AUGUST 14, 1898. Oulare Lake Dried Up: A CORNER OF TULARE LAKE IN 1875 WHEN IT WAS ABOUT SEVENTY-FIVE MILES LON PEOPLE SAILED, FISHED AND HUNTED OVER SETTLERS WOULD HAVE has pa ULARE LAKE was a body Southern a Lake w pastures a the shri Sail and lake it was Tulare Lake The banks growth of land was so a line of aft a man e could wade out finding water th s had steep banks 1 far out from s at these spots ere a few uth of th goodly population there. Tulare Lake was most SCOFFED AT THE IDEA OF From a Photograph The y al- fowl. mudhens, there by the son of the year their blunderbt the thousands to grow le with fish that could be caught with ¢ bare hook. During the hunting season parties left all parts of the State to go shooting on Tulare Lake. Arks were built and keepers engaged to take care of them. Hundreds of sportsmen made their an- nual pilgrimage to this big body of water. At this time Tulare Lake was beau- tiful to look at. It was nearly alwa as smooth as glass and the water as million: Men went out with clear as crystal One could take a small boat and row out far from shore where the s tion would be that of swinging in midair. During any hour of the day the out- ITS WATERS. ITS EVER DISAPPEARING. v AUKAM S0 winu nMuw 1 he AT THAT TIME THE TULARE COUNTY ® TULARL RERN G AND 150k was a pleasing one. VISALIA Dr. Eisen Claims That the Disappzarance of this Big Sheet of Water in the State Will bz Beneficial by Increasing the Agricultural Lands and Decreasing Malaria. Far_to the east the outlines of the Sierra Nevada Mountains could be seen rising above a pale blue mist that hune over the vast stretel of lowland. To the south the Tehachapi Range loomed up, and on the west the Coast Range looked as close asf you could put your hand on it. But how deceiving it all was, for the nearest mountain was at least 25 miles away. Between 1875 and 1880, when vine- vards began to be planted, the waters sShrunk up almost to the borders of Tulare County. In 1382 they crossed it and left Kern County altogether. Each year after this saw the lake become smaller and smaller. It had become almost circular in_shape by 1888, and was quite deep. But it was doomed. Irrigation became more gen- eral, until at last none of the rivers reached the lake at all, except during the rainy season. & POS0O BAKERSFIELD o GREAT TULARL cane no oMRUNK AND DISAPPEARED FROM THE SURFACE OF CALIFORNIA IN FORTY YEARS. In 1858, just fort two counties of the thereabouts began to be gan to be tapped for irri ttled up & years ago, Tulare Lake stretched almost through tate, a distance of about eighty- miles As the land and the streams flowing into it be- ating purposes its shore line began to shrink. But never for a moment did any of the settlers believe it would entirely disappear. Several years ago plans summer resort for San Joaquin Valley residents on were discussed for building a_ big its . shores. Last winter’s lack of rain, however, completed its story and the dry sum- mer air licked up the last vestige Lake. of water that remained to Tulare WHAT THE LAST OF TULARE LAKE DRY BOTTOM LAND TILL AND THE FARMERS @ARE LOOKS LIKE TO-DAY IT PUTTING IN CROPS WHERE From a Photograph. Disappearance of the Largeat Tody of Fresk Water in California. . THE SUN HAS BAKED THE IS CRACKED FOR MILES WITH WIDE FISSURES THE WATERS ONCE RAN. 0000000000000 0000CC00UCO00000T000000C00I000C OGOC‘OGOOUOOO Lake i lare rive (i that there hav winters since 1874 ha with it. the €0's there would each winter and le mer and the lake w needed for i or two other ste oats D O00000000000000Co00000002000C0C0 © Q o © In 1895 the lake was about four or five miles wide and deep enough for small boats. Hunting was still good, but not like it was in the old days. At this stage the lake seemed to re- matn stationary. The rainfall of the winters filled 1t and it did not 'dry up during the summers. Many old-timers predicted that it would grow no smaller. They said it had reached its limit and that there would always be just about so much water out there. A few prophets even so far as to suggest the building of a summer re- sort, claiming that it would be well patronized by people in the interior. And the plan might have been car- fed out if there had been any rain last inter. But there wasn’t, and Tulare Lake had to pass out of existence. Reports from that section now teil of a strange state of affairs. The land that was the bottom of the lake last year is now baking and cracking in the sun. There are hoies big enough for a man to fall into. All over are the carcasses of dead fish, filling the air with foulness. So fast is the evap- oration from the soil under the semi- tropical sun that it is most unpleas- ant. There is not a drop of water to be seen anywhere. Tulare Lake has actually dried up. But good will come out of it for somebody, because the lands can be reclaimed and used for farming. Al- HE principal cause of the drying up of Tulare sing of the waters of Kings and Tu- irrigation purpo: been very few also had a good deal to do Had there been more rainstorms of the kind that put the greater portion of the Sacramento valleys under water sev ave been more 11d probably have been there yet. running on twelve miles from Hanford, and almost out land, the boat ran over the ruins of an old ranch. We 000000RCC000C00C000C0C0000000000000000000000R0V000000D DR. EISEN'S OPINION OF THE DRVING UP OF THE LAKE. He Was There Twenty Years Ago When Large Steamers Ran Across It and lts Broad Waters Were the Scenes of Busy Gommercial Life. and see the The fact cessively rainy sunk from sight o an Joaquin and 1 times during ater in the lake ation in the sum- W In 1878 I crossed lare Lake on a steamboat. This on one occasion a party of about 500 of their tribe at- was a regular packet t ran between Hanford and tempted to cross to the other in canoes and a small town on the west side of the lake. The dis- when midway in the lake were struck by a storm. Not tance across was about thirty miles. There were one a man was saved. The whole 500 met watery graves the lake at the time. Sail boats were numerocus and altogether Tulare Lake was of considerable w to the commerce of the region. will be less sickne: On the occasion that T de my trip across the lake - marsh land in the we were all treated to a surpr When we were about that will now be a ght of ready surveyors are out with their in- strumentt running lines across the awful e and baking mud. But this mud is said to be '‘as rich as butter,” and_ the land will grow almost any kind of erop with very little irrigation: Residents in the vicinity of what was once Tulare Lake generally think that now is the opportunity to organize and reclaim the vast area and put it in shape to produce the luxuriaunt crops of grain and alfalfa that it is known to be capable of producing. It has been suggested that gates in Lower Kings River be put in so as to turn northward through Fish and Cole into the San Joaquin the wat- ay come down in a wet year. i ted now, with the lake dried up, such works can be put in at xpenditure not exceeding $5000. In hing gates in the Lower Kings ver it should be done of course with ¢ of protecting 'l those depend- ent upon that source for water for Ir- rigation. And so disappears from the surface of California the largest lake west of the Rocky Mountain: The United States Consul at Shang- hai thus describes a new Chinese fire- cracker: “It has two chambers, sep- arated by a plug of clay, through which runs a connecting fuse. There is also a fuse extending from the powder could look down through ten or twelve feet of clear also the foundation of = scattered about. D whether the ranch had been on an island that had land during some previous dry year. When Tulare La used to be some awful storms sweep over it Dozens of small boats have heen wrecked there. Indians who live on the west side have a tradition that and even the canoes were never seen again. In my opinion the drying good thing. The land will be good for crops and there fence posts of an old pig sty. There house and several metal ybody on. the boat ‘knew r whether it had been on the main- It was stery. ake was a big body of water there urface. The up of Tulare Lake is a ss in the vicinity. The sloughs and old days used to be full of malaria thing of the past. GUSTAV EISEN. 0000000000000 0CCOO00000000000000 in the lower chamber through the side of the cracker. When the cracke be fired it is set on end and i the fuse. The powder exploding chamber throws the cracker higt the air, where the sécond charge is ex- ploded by fire from the fuse extending through the plug between the two chambers. In the manufacture of these the clay is first tamped in with a punch to form the separating plug. The lower chamber is then loaded with powder and closed by turning over the paper at the end. The upper chamber is loaded and closed with clay. A hole is punched in the side of the lower chamber with an awl and the fuse in- serted through this opening.” e It's hard to gather » woman'’s mean- ing from her words, but nature has saved a few of them the trouble of making themselves plain. ———— Search lights are such good targets for the enemy’s guns that the Germans are arranging to throw the light on a mirror and thence on the enemy, thereby con- cealing its real source ———— Some men go home of a hot day and quarrel with their wives because they look comfortable. —_——— A man’s clothing usually has the but- torns on the right-hand side, a woman'’s on the left. CITY large enough to house a population of 5000, yet absolutely tenantle a place with sub- stantial brick blocks, well-laid S asls da w handsome residences, costly store build- in fact, a metropolitan city—but thout a resident, with not even a to crow by day nor a dog to howl by night! Such a place exists, although ven in North Dakota, which State his tenantless metropolis, West 20 passed from the mem- long ag f most men and women. A weird place it is. The “city” is here—deserted, abandoned, going to Jo traffic goes on in its streets, s stores; the sound of s not heard in its dwel- ts are graded, the walks are of mac u bery flourish in the yards surrounding . the residences—but all in silence and Joneliness. Such a place is West Lynne, on the west bank of the Red River of the North and almost on the Canadian boundary. The history of the place is one of the s of the “boom” period from romanc 1378 to 1881. The people of the Dako- i1l er forget those ‘‘boom when towns sprang up in a - night; when a few lots staked out on the pr: and styled collectively - *Central “New London,” or :Something equallv impressive sold in the markets of the East one day for hundreds « and the next day then that shrewd fattening upon the 2 ern investor. A --golden stream poured in to the land where yet the Sioux—the Apache of the North—fought his ancient foes, the . ‘Blackfoot of Montana and the Pawnee _~of the Niobrara, nd, having van- . quished them, joined in an attack upon -:gome tribe springing from his own par- . ent stock—fought just to be fighting, hecause it “was the nater of the beast.” . The lowly laborer, drawing his weekly : ’stipend, made enormous by stress of " “Boom” prices, invested it in prairie --goil and at the end of a month found himself rich beyond the chance of gain having to toll. Those were the *good old boom days.” But there came the collapse. Men 0, not foreseeing the crash, invested . jmiore heavily instead of turning their *holdings into coin, awoke one morning to find themselves “land poor” and in .debt, unable to complete the extensive “improvements they had begun upon (TY WHERE BIRDS AND ANIMALS LIVE their realty. I »” i The fortunes that had been made in a day were scattered in - era in a night; villages that had sprung up in a few hours and grown to the impor- tance of incorporated towns and cities in a few months were deserted by all save those who, swamped by the crash, found themselves without money enough to get away. The collapse of the “Dakota boom™ in 1881 marked the beginning of a new the great wheat belt of the Northwest—an era of steady settle- ment and growth, of prosperity found- ed upon a virgin soil which, “tickled with a hoe laughs a harvest,” until now in the hands of the Dakotas there have sprung up two great common- wealths, for the output of whose gran- aries the peoples of distant climes give up their gold. West Lynne was a “boom town' and the most noted of them all. It was platted by schemers with more fertility than scruples, at a point on the Red River, where, they claimed, the Great Northern Railroad was to cross when built through to the Pacific Coast. The possibilities of the place were exploit- ed in the East; capitalists became in- terested and money was plentiful. There was no sham about the actual construction of West Lynne. It was not another Arizona desert farce, ex- cept in the minds and on the plats of its projectors, but a substantial reality. James H. Murray, a Chicago man, was the agent. He sold lots at auction in Chicago for thousands of dollars each. While he was selling a telegram would come notifying him of the disposal of a certain plat and it would be with- drawn. ' Then he sold adjoining lots at top notch prices. In the meantime building was pro- gressing. There were no board shan- ties, sod walls or canvas shells. Hand- some structures of brick or lumber, fin- ished in modern style, spraig up as fast as material could be transported and contractors do the work. And to-day there the ity” stands, a handsome but useléss monument to the credulity of some and the hardi- hood of others. Not one of its magnifi- 0 HOTELS cent buildings has ever been occupied. Several years have elapsed since the writer last visited West Lynne, whose history then dated back over fifteen years. No one loitered on the grass grown streets; the handsome and cost- ly blocks of brick, with plate-glas windows and ornate facades and ma; sive doors creaking on rusty hinges or lying where they had been tumbled by Time's rude hand, gave ck hollow echoes to the voice of the v Man- sions costing thousands of doliars tasteful and spacious, with every indi- cation that persons of wealth and re- finement had at some time intended to occupy them—were scattered in clus- ters in this or that “addition.” Around them trees and shrubbery, once reared with care, grew rank and unkempt. The fences were falling to pieces and grass and weeds encroached upon pave- ments and approaches. Not a human being was to be seen; not even a stray cat was found warming itself in some stray nook on that fine September day. And the ‘“city” had never had a per- manent resident! But all is not yet told of the waste of wealth that created this prairie haven of bats and foul birds of the night. Across the Red River is a steel bridge, built for railroad and wagon traffic, which no engine or train ever crossed or ever will. The wagon track is used. The structure must have cost $200,000, as there is a great deal of piling and trestles in the approaches. West Lynne stands on a flat, sandy stretch, where the overflow from the river is so extensive and long continued that crops cannot be grown. Across the river in Emerson is the custom house, and the business of the district is con- ducted there. That is all the life there is to Emerson, which in the “boom days’ was but a suburb of West Lynne. Even in Emerson there is a brick block, three stories high, 375 by 140 feet in di- mensions, with a basement under the whole. It contains fourteen spacious store rooms, with plate glass fronts and all the accessories of a stylish business block. But not a single Individual in- habits the great structure and it is slowly going to ruin. Eighty-five thous- and dollars was the cost of this build- ing. This is but one illustration of the manner in which towns arose and fell in the Dakotas during the memorable “boom.” West Lynne was by far the largest of the mushroom cities, but there are many others in the two States which contain enormous buildings, erected when money was plentiful and investors looked upon the Northwest as the American Land of Canaan, but which have never been tenanted since the contractors and their men left them,