Tulare (place of tules, or rushes), is the name of a county in the south-central part of the state, of Tulare Lake in Kings County, and of a town in the San Joaquín Valley. The county is remarkable for the high mountain peaks of the Sierra Nevada, on its northeast border. Among these is Mount Whitney, about 14500 feet in height.
Tulare Lake, in Kings County, at one time filled a shallow depression about thirty miles in length, and received through a number of small streams the drainage from the southern part of the Sierra Nevada, soon losing the greater part of this water by evaporation. It is now practically dry, as a result of the withdrawal for irrigation purposes of Kings and Kern Rivers, and the territory formerly covered by it has been to a great extent placed under cultivation. The lake was discovered in 1773 by Commandant Fages, while hunting for deserters from the presidio at Monterey, and called by him Los Tules (the rushes), from the great number of those plants with which it was filled. In 1813 Captain Moraga passed through the valley of this lake, and named it Valle de los Tules (valley of the rushes).
SUPPLEMENTARY LIST
Acampo (common pasture), is the name of a village in San Joaquín County. See Final Index.
Arroyo Buenos Aires (creek of the good airs), is in San Joaquín County.
Caliente (hot), is the name of a town in Kern County.
Chico (little), is the name of a town in Butte County, ninety-six miles north of Sacramento. This place derives its name from the Rancho Chico (the little ranch), of which General John Bidwell was the original grantee. The Arroyo Chico and the town both took their names from the ranch.—(Mr. Charles B. Turrill.)
Chowchilla, a large ranch in the San Joaquín Valley, takes its name from the Chowchilla Indians, a branch of the Moquelumnan family. Fremont refers to this name under a somewhat different spelling: “The springs and streams hereabout were waters of the Chauchiles and Mariposas Rivers, and the Indians of this village belonged to the Chauchiles tribe.”
Dos Palos (two sticks, or trees), is in Merced County, twenty miles southwest of Merced.
Esparto (feather-grass), is a town in Yolo County.