Frenchman Lake is a reservoir located in southeastern
Plumas County, California
Plumas County () is a county in the Sierra Nevada of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 19,790. The county seat is Quincy, and the only incorporated city is Portola. The largest community in the county is ...
. It was created by the damming of Little Last Chance Creek in 1961, as part of the
California State Water Project
The California State Water Project, commonly known as the SWP, is a state water management project in the U.S. state of California under the supervision of the California Department of Water Resources. The SWP is one of the largest public wate ...
. It was named after its tributary Frenchman Creek, which in turn was named after Claude Francois Seltier, a French immigrant who settled in the area in 1858.
Frenchman Dam
Frenchman Dam was completed in 1961 as part of the
California State Water Project
The California State Water Project, commonly known as the SWP, is a state water management project in the U.S. state of California under the supervision of the California Department of Water Resources. The SWP is one of the largest public wate ...
, under the authority of the
California Department of Water Resources
The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) is part of the California Natural Resources Agency and is responsible for the management and regulation of the State of California's water usage. The department was created in 1956 by Governor G ...
. It is a rock-fill and earthen dam 129 feet high, with a length of 720 feet at its crest. Normal water storage in the reservoir is 55,477
acre-feet
The acre-foot is a non- SI unit of volume equal to about commonly used in the United States in reference to large-scale water resources, such as reservoirs, aqueducts, canals, sewer flow capacity, irrigation water, and river flows.
An acre-f ...
.
Geography
The Frenchman Lake's elevation when full is above sea level. The surface area of Frenchman Lake is . The shoreline length is , the maximum depth reaches , averaging . The nearest community is
Chilcoot-Vinton, California which is approximately south.
National Forest Recreation Area
The
United States Forest Service
The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency in ...
administers the
Plumas National Forest
Plumas National Forest is a 1,146,000-acre (4,638 km2) United States National Forest located at the northern terminus of the Sierra Nevada, in northern California. The Forest was named after its primary watershed, the Rio de las Plumas, or Fe ...
land surrounding the lake as a National Forest Recreation Area, locally managed as part of the
Beckwourth Ranger District. The Frenchman Lake Recreation Area offers a wide variety of summer outdoor experiences including: camping, picnicking, fishing, hunting, boating, jet skiing, mountain biking, swimming and water-skiing. In the winter, ice fishing, snowmobiling and cross-country skiing are favored activities.
Public campgrounds are located on the south shore at Cottonwood Springs, Frenchman, Spring Creek and Big Cove. Additionally there is another campground located below the dam along Little Last Chance Creek.
See also
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List of dams and reservoirs in California
*
List of lakes in California
There are more than 3,000 named lakes, reservoirs, and dry lakes in the U.S. state of California.
Largest lakes
In terms of area covered, the largest lake in California is the Salton Sea, a lake formed in 1905 which is now saline. It occupie ...
External links
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Plumas National Forest
Reservoirs in Plumas County, California
Parks in Plumas County, California
Reservoirs in California
Reservoirs in Northern California
1961 establishments in California