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Bass Lake (Madera County, California)
Bass Lake, formerly known as Crane Valley Reservoir, is a man-made lake located in Madera County, California, within the Sierra National Forest, approximately 14 miles (23 km) south of Yosemite National Park. The lake was formed by the construction of Crane Valley Dam on Willow Creek, a tributary of the San Joaquin River The San Joaquin River ( ; ) is the longest river of Central California. The long river starts in the high Sierra Nevada and flows through the rich agricultural region of the northern San Joaquin Valley before reaching Suisun Bay, San Francis .... Completed in 1910, the 145-foot (44 m) concrete gravity dam was built to generate hydroelectric power. Today, Bass Lake supports energy production, recreation, and diverse ecological habitats. History The name "Crane Valley" dates back to 1851, when early explorers misidentified great blue herons as cranes in the region’s wetlands. Hydroelectric development began in 1895 under the San Joaquin Electric Com ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sierra National Forest
Sierra National Forest is a U.S. national forest located on the western slope of the central Sierra Nevada in California, bounded on the northwest by Yosemite National Park and on the south by Kings Canyon National Park. The forest is known for its mountain scenery and beautiful lakes. Forest headquarters are located in Clovis, California. There are local ranger district offices in North Fork and Prather. History Sierra National Forest was the second National Forest created in California and the largest at the time. It covered over six million acres (24,000 km2) of the Sierra Nevada and was about four times the average area of typical California National Forests. Originally it embraced parts of eight counties from Tuolumne on the north to Kern on the south and Mono and Inyo on the east. Initially its name was descriptive, but later when the Sierra was divided into different units this was no longer the case. President Benjamin Harrison proclaimed the Sierra Forest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Madera County, California
Madera County (), officially the County of Madera, is a County (United States), county located at the geographic center of the U.S. state of California. It features a varied landscape, encompassing the eastern San Joaquin Valley and the central Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada, with Madera, California, Madera serving as the county seat. Established in 1893 from part of Fresno County, California, Fresno County, Madera County reported a population of 156,255 in the 2020 census. "Madera," meaning "wood" in Spanish, signifies the county's historical ties to the lumber industry. With a section of Yosemite National Park within its borders, Madera County has leveraged tourism as a key economic driver. Additionally, it has established itself as a leading agricultural center, renowned for its substantial production of almonds, grapes, and pistachios. Despite these economic advantages, Madera County encounters socioeconomic challenges, including a median household income that falls bel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reservoir (water)
A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of water, interrupting a watercourse to form an Bay, embayment within it, excavating, or building any number of retaining walls or levees to enclose any area to store water. Types Dammed valleys Dammed reservoirs are artificial lakes created and controlled by a dam constructed across a valley and rely on the natural topography to provide most of the basin of the reservoir. These reservoirs can either be ''on-stream reservoirs'', which are located on the original streambed of the downstream river and are filled by stream, creeks, rivers or rainwater that surface runoff, runs off the surrounding forested catchments, or ''off-stream reservoirs'', which receive water diversion, diverted water from a nearby stream or aqueduct (water supply), aqueduct or pi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Willow Creek (Madera County, California)
Willow Creek is a stream in Madera County, California, and a primary tributary of the upper San Joaquin River. It originates in the Sierra Nevada and flows approximately 25 miles (40 km) west-southwest, descending about 7,000 feet in elevation before its confluence with the San Joaquin. Willow Creek is best known as the main inflow of Bass Lake, a reservoir in the Sierra National Forest. Along its course it features a series of cascades known as Angel Falls, a popular recreation site. The creek supports hydroelectric generation, municipal water supply, and a variety of outdoor activities. Course and geography Willow Creek originates on the slopes of Iron Mountain in the Sierra Nevada, at an elevation of about 9,000 feet (2,700 m). It flows southwest through steep granite canyons in the Bass Lake Ranger District of the Sierra National Forest. Its North Fork is dammed by Crane Valley Dam to form Bass Lake, while a South Fork diversion known as Brown’s Ditch also feeds the r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bass Lake, California
Bass Lake is a census-designated place (CDP) in Madera County, California, United States. Located within the Sierra National Forest, it lies approximately south of the entrance to Yosemite National Park. The community is centered around Bass Lake, a reservoir formed in 1910 by the construction of Crane Valley Dam on Willow Creek, a tributary of the San Joaquin River. As of the 2020 United States census, Bass Lake had a population of 575. The area is a popular destination for outdoor activities including boating, fishing, hiking, and mountain biking. The region was originally inhabited by the Mono and later developed for logging and hydroelectric power. In the 20th century, it transitioned into a recreational and seasonal residential community. Bass Lake has also appeared in several films and was known for hosting annual Hells Angels gatherings during the 1960s and 1970s. Today, it stands as an example of early multi-use land planning shaped by infrastructure, resource use, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yosemite National Park
Yosemite National Park ( ) is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States in California. It is bordered on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers in four County, countiescentered in Tuolumne County, California, Tuolumne and Mariposa County, California, Mariposa, extending north and east to Mono County, California, Mono and south to Madera County, California, Madera. Designated a World Heritage Site in 1984, Yosemite is internationally recognized for its granite cliffs, waterfalls, clear streams, groves of Sequoiadendron giganteum, giant sequoia, lakes, mountains, meadows, glaciers, and Biodiversity, biological diversity. Almost 95 percent of the park is designated National Wilderness Preservation System, wilderness. Yosemite is one of the largest and least fragmented habitat blocks in the Sierra Nevada. Its geology of the Yosem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
San Joaquin River
The San Joaquin River ( ; ) is the longest river of Central California. The long river starts in the high Sierra Nevada and flows through the rich agricultural region of the northern San Joaquin Valley before reaching Suisun Bay, San Francisco Bay, and the Pacific Ocean. An important source of irrigation water as well as a wildlife corridor, the San Joaquin is among the most heavily dammed and diverted of California's rivers. People have inhabited the San Joaquin Valley for more than 8,000 years, and it was one of the major population centers of pre-Columbian California. Starting in the late 18th century, successive waves of explorers then settlers, mainly Spanish and American, emigrated to the San Joaquin basin. When Spain colonized the area, they sent soldiers from Mexico, who were usually of mixed native Mexican and Spanish birth, led by Spanish officers. Franciscan missionaries from Spain came with expeditions to evangelize the natives by teaching them about the Catholi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
San Joaquin Light And Power Corporation
The San Joaquin Light and Power Corporation was a utility company that provided electricity to seven counties in the San Joaquin Valley of California. The company is one of several utilities acquired by the Pacific Gas and Electric Company during the 1920s and 1930s to form the modern PG&E system. History The company was first organized as the San Joaquin Electric Company on April 1, 1895, by engineer John Samuel Eastwood for the construction of the hydroelectric San Joaquin Powerhouse No. 1, located 37 miles from Fresno on Willow Creek, a tributary of the San Joaquin River. The company later became the San Joaquin Power Company in 1905 and then the San Joaquin Light and Power Corporation in 1910. By 1920, the company had 11 powerhouses. San Joaquin's early business was challenged by the competing Fresno Gas and Electric Company, controlled by Fulton G. Berry, owner of Fresno's Grand Central Hotel. Berry used riparian claims filed on water upstream from San Joaquin Electri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
PG&E
The Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is an American investor-owned utility (IOU). The company is headquartered at Kaiser Center, in Oakland, California. PG&E provides natural gas and electricity to 5.2 million households in the northern two-thirds of California, from Bakersfield and northern Santa Barbara County, almost to the Oregon and Nevada state lines. Overseen by the California Public Utilities Commission, PG&E is the leading subsidiary of the holding company PG&E Corporation, which has a market capitalization of $34.9 billion as of March 10, 2025. PG&E was established on October 10, 1905, from the merger and consolidation of predecessor utility companies, and by 1984 was the United States' "largest electric utility business". PG&E is one of six regulated, investor-owned electric utilities (IOUs) in California; the other five are PacifiCorp, Southern California Edison, San Diego Gas & Electric, Bear Valley Electric, and Liberty Utilities. In 2018 and 2019, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reservoirs In Madera County, California
A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of water, interrupting a watercourse to form an embayment within it, excavating, or building any number of retaining walls or levees to enclose any area to store water. Types Dammed valleys Dammed reservoirs are artificial lakes created and controlled by a dam constructed across a valley and rely on the natural topography to provide most of the basin of the reservoir. These reservoirs can either be ''on-stream reservoirs'', which are located on the original streambed of the downstream river and are filled by creeks, rivers or rainwater that runs off the surrounding forested catchments, or ''off-stream reservoirs'', which receive diverted water from a nearby stream or aqueduct or pipeline water from other on-stream reservoirs. Dams are typically loc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lakes Of The Sierra Nevada (United States)
A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from the ocean, although they may be connected with the ocean by rivers. Lakes, as with other bodies of water, are part of the water cycle, the processes by which water moves around the Earth. Most lakes are fresh water and account for almost all the world's surface freshwater, but some are salt lakes with salinities even higher than that of seawater. Lakes vary significantly in surface area and volume of water. Lakes are typically larger and deeper than ponds, which are also water-filled basins on land, although there are no official definitions or scientific criteria distinguishing the two. Lakes are also distinct from lagoons, which are generally shallow tidal pools dammed by sandbars or other material at coastal regions of oceans or large la ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reservoirs In California
A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of water, interrupting a watercourse to form an Bay, embayment within it, excavating, or building any number of retaining walls or levees to enclose any area to store water. Types Dammed valleys Dammed reservoirs are artificial lakes created and controlled by a dam constructed across a valley and rely on the natural topography to provide most of the basin of the reservoir. These reservoirs can either be ''on-stream reservoirs'', which are located on the original streambed of the downstream river and are filled by stream, creeks, rivers or rainwater that surface runoff, runs off the surrounding forested catchments, or ''off-stream reservoirs'', which receive water diversion, diverted water from a nearby stream or aqueduct (water supply), aq ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
