California's 'ghost lake' reappears after 130 years, floods 94,000 acres of farmland

A California "ghost lake" that disappeared in the 19th century is making its grand comeback after 130 years, swallowing up 94,000 acres and counting of private farmland.

Tulare Lake in California's San Joaquin Valley began drying up in the late 1850s—not by chance, but through deliberate actions taken to reshape the land at the expense of the existing ecosystem and nearby indigenous communities.

It disappeared around 1890 and reappeared in 2023, thanks to massive winter storms across the Golden State and melting snow from the Sierra Nevada. The lake once stretched over 100 miles long and 30 miles wide, reports the Telegraph.

“Tulare Lake was the largest body of fresh water west of the Mississippi River. It's really hard to imagine that now," said Vivian Underhill, a researcher at Northeastern University who studies the phenomenon.

There were man-made ponds around where the lake used to be, but the massive flow of snowmelt overwhelmed them all and submerged acres of farmland.

While it has come at the expense of fertile farmland, the return of the lake has already begun to revitalize the valley's once-lost ecosystem.

Ducks and other waterfowl have flocked to the shores of the lake for the first time in years, and frogs have even begun to return home to the shore. /Telegraph/