Lake Hemet is a water storage

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

located in the

San Jacinto Mountains The San Jacinto Mountains (''Avii Hanupach''Munro, P., et al. ''A Mojave Dictionary''. Los Angeles: UCLA. 1992. in Mojave) are a mountain range in Riverside County, located east of Los Angeles in southern California in the United States. The mou ...

in Mountain Center,

Riverside County, California Riverside County is a County (United States), county located in the southern California, southern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 2,418,185, making it the fourth-most ...

,"Lake Hemet". The California Parks Company. Retrieved October 15, 2017. http://lakehemetrecreation.com/ with a capacity of of water. It was created in 1895 with the construction of

Lake Hemet Dam Lake Hemet Dam, located in Mountain Center, California, impounds the South Fork of the San Jacinto River and creates Lake Hemet. The dam and lake are surrounded by the San Bernardino National Forest. The dam is operated by the Lake Hemet Munici ...

. Originally built by a private company, today it is owned and operated by the Lake Hemet Municipal Water District (LHMWD).

Facts and statistics

Lake Hemet is an

artificial lake A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

in the

, 4,340 ft (1,323 m) above sea level. Lake Hemet is part of the

San Bernardino National Forest The San Bernardino National Forest is a United States National Forest in Southern California encompassing of which are federal. The forest is made up of two main divisions, the eastern portion of the San Gabriel Mountains and the San Bernard ...

. Lake Hemet has a surface area of and 12 miles (19 km) of shoreline. Fishing is the primary attraction to the lake, which is stocked with

rainbow trout The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. The steelhead (sometimes called "steelhead trout") is an anadromous (sea-run) form of the coasta ...

channel catfish The channel catfish (''Ictalurus punctatus'') is North America's most numerous catfish species. It is the official fish of Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, and Tennessee, and is informally referred to as a "channel cat". In the United States, the ...

bluegill The bluegill (''Lepomis macrochirus''), sometimes referred to as "bream", "brim", "sunny", or "copper nose" as is common in Texas, is a species of North American freshwater fish, native to and commonly found in streams, rivers, lakes, ponds and ...

and

largemouth bass The largemouth bass (''Micropterus salmoides'') is a carnivorous freshwater gamefish in the Centrarchidae ( sunfish) family, a species of black bass native to the eastern and central United States, southeastern Canada and northern Mexico, but ...

. Other Lake Hemet activities include boating, picnicking, hiking, and camping in the surrounding areas. LHMWD provides water from Lake Hemet to a geographically diverse service area in Riverside County, including portions of the cities of

Hemet Hemet is a city in the San Jacinto Valley in Riverside County, California. It covers a total area of , about half of the valley, which it shares with the neighboring city of San Jacinto. The population was 89,833 at the 2020 census. The foundi ...

and San Jacinto, and to the isolated but growing high

Garner Valley This is a list of geographic place names, or toponyms, in Riverside County, California. The county itself was named for the city of Riverside, the county seat, which in turn was named for its location beside the Santa Ana River. Municipalities ...

, a community located on San Jacinto Mountain. LHMWD's customers are represented by a publicly elected board of five directors in 5 divisions. They represent approximately 13,800 domestic and 51 agricultural customers within a 26-square mile (67 km²) service area. Service connections * 1,800 in 1955 * 1,873 in 1957 * 2,623 in 1962 * 3,747 in 1967 * 5,000 in 1972 * 6,850 in 1977 * 13,636 in 2003 * 13,960 in 2004 Length of Lake Hemet Municipal Water District Pipeline * 30.8 miles (49.6 km) in 1957 * 53.59 miles (86.7 km) in 1962 * 78.29 miles (127.6 km) in 1967 * 96.82 miles (155.8 km) in 1972 * 127 miles (204 km) in 1977 * 136 miles (219 km) in 2003 * 139 miles (224 km) in 2004 It is 13 miles (23 km) SW of

Palm Springs, California Palm Springs (Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Riverside County by land a ...

, United States.

History

Development of the

San Jacinto Valley The San Jacinto Valley is a valley located in Riverside County, in Southern California, in the Inland Empire. The valley is located at the base of the San Jacinto Mountains in the east and Santa Rosa Hills to the south with the San Gorgonio Pass ...

can be traced to 1887, with the formation of the Lake Hemet Water Company and the Hemet Land Company by Edward L. Mayberry, his wealthy San Francisco friend, William F. Whittier, and their partners. These two companies allowed the partnership to acquire land and water rights from the San Jacinto Valley to the west end of

in the

. Lake Hemet Water Company placed the first stone of the

on January 6, 1891. When this arched masonry structure was completed in 1895 at a height of , it was the largest solid masonry dam in the world—a title it would retain until the construction of

Roosevelt Dam Theodore Roosevelt Dam is a dam on the Salt River located northeast of Phoenix, Arizona. The dam is high and forms Theodore Roosevelt Lake as it impounds the Salt River. Originally built between 1905 and 1911, the dam was renovated and expande ...

in Arizona in 1911. In 1923, the Hemet dam was raised to a height of . The 1932 opening of the

Pines to Palms Highway A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accep ...

(SR 74) from the coast to

Palm Desert Palm Desert is a city in Riverside County, California, United States, in the Coachella Valley, approximately east of Palm Springs, northeast of San Diego and east of Los Angeles. The population was 48,445 at the 2010 census. The city has been ...

was significant in developing Lake Hemet for increased recreational uses. LHMWD was founded on September 27, 1955, to take over the activities of the Lake Hemet Water Company, purchasing the Lake Hemet water system with funds raised through a bond initiative.

Appearances in popular culture

Shots of the lake were used in the 1980s CBS television show ''

Airwolf ''Airwolf'' is an American action military drama television series that centers on a high-technology military helicopter, code-named ''Airwolf'', and its crew. The show follows them as they undertake various exotic missions, many involving e ...

'', in which recurring character Stringfellow Hawke lived in a cabin on the lake. The lake was featured in ''Visiting... with

Huell Howser Huell Burnley Howser (October 18, 1945 – January 7, 2013) was an American television personality, actor, producer, writer, singer, and voice artist, best known for hosting, producing, and writing ''California's Gold'' and his human interest sh ...

'' Episode 923.

References

Lake Hemet Municipal Water District
*

External links

* {{authority control Hemet, Lake Hemet, California Dams in California San Jacinto River (California) United States local public utility dams Hemet, Lake

Facts and statistics

History

Appearances in popular culture

See also

References

External links