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Nearly
two centuries ago, on January 6, 1805, Lt. Gabriel Moraga
led a company of Spanish soldiers and Franciscan clergymen
through the eastern edge of the San Joaquin Valley, in search
of new mission sites. They paused on the banks of a wide,
clear river. Because this was the day of the Feast of the
Epiphany, the river was named El Rio de los Santos Reyes,
the River of the Holy Kings. Father Pedro Munoz, Moraga’s
diarist, recorded the event a year later, in October of 1806,
at which time he described the river as follows: “…
All the meadows are well covered with oak, alder cottonwood
and willow. The river abounds with beaver and fish. It is
a location suitable for a mission, although there would also
have to be a presidio.” The expedition briefly explored
the river, reporting it to have all the necessary features
for a future mission site: fertile soil, water and sufficient
aboriginal souls (Yokuts Indians) to convert to Christianity
and to work in the fields. Today, we have shortened this name
to simply “Kings River.” Lt. Moraga explored it
from where it emerged from Kings Canyon in the upper foothills
to the point where it dissolved into the Tulares (or Tule
swamp), at the edge of Laguna de Tache, (Tulare Lake). Father
Munoz reported more than ten different tribes of natives inhabiting
the area, numbering more than 5,000.
Fifty-seven
years later, Lt. George H. Derby explored the Kings River
vicinity for the Army Topographical Engineers. He reported
the river to be 300 feet wide, very deep and clear, and
flowing very rapidly. If correct, this would have been during
one of the greatest flood events of all time. Upon reaching
the downstream extent of the Kings River at the swampy Sanjon
de San Jose (at the trough of the San Joaquin Valley), he
reported finding the multiple channels to be carrying the
water of the San Joaquin River southward, in reversed direction,
into Tache (Tulare) Lake. This would have required a water
stage of more than 28 vertical feet in the San Joaquin River,
which has never even come close to being attained since.
Today,
after passage of another century and a half of rich history,
the Choinumni Yokuts are now absent from the lower River’s
banks and the Monache no longer threaten our passage to
the upstream watershed. Today, we know the Kings River as
one of the most beautiful and productive rivers in the world;
beginning at its 13,000-foot wilderness headwaters, extending
from Mt. Haeckel in the north to Great Western Divide in
the south, and then extending down slope and westward about
70 miles to its developed reaches, at not far above sea-level
on the San Joaquin Valley floor. The Kings River provides
outdoor recreation, scenic beauty, water supply for cities
and agriculture, mineral resources and pleasing green hues
across an otherwise arid San Joaquin Valley.
Some
of California’s earliest irrigation works were constructed
on the Kings River, beginning with the development of the
76 Canal, to supply the area around the town of Traver,
in the mid 1880s. The development of the mule-drawn “Fresno
scraper”, by Abajah McCall of Selma, greatly assisted
this construction, as well as construction of most of the
later Kings River irrigation works. As water became withdrawn
from the river and spread across the landscape, floodwaters
became increasingly controlled, and it became possible to
reclaim the acreage beneath the extensive Tulare Lake. Through
construction of an extensive system of levees – again
using the by-then-famous Fresno scraper – additional
major water development and land drainage continued for
more than 100 years, up to the present. Recent additions
were two large hydroelectric reservoirs and several power
plants constructed by Pacific Gas and Electric Company on
the North Fork, and construction of the one-million acre-foot
Pine Flat Reservoir, by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,
on the river’s mainstem. The latter provided major
regulation of snow run-off, allowing all-year irrigation
and flood control protection to extend over a one-million
acre landscape as well as providing an opportunity for electrical
energy generation in the Kings River Conservation District’s
Pine Flat Power Plant. Today, the rights to waters of the
Kings River, as regulated through the above reservoirs,
are owned and administered by the 28 separate member-districts
of the Kings River Water Association. The Pine Flat service
area yields more than $6 billion in farm-gate-value agricultural
production annually.
Recreation
associated with the Kings River is a major cultural and
economic asset to the region. The river’s spectacular
canyon, located within Kings Canyon National Park, has been
designated by Congress as a Federal “wild and scenic
river,” based on its “outstandingly remarkable”
wilderness characters. Further downstream, the mainstem
above Pine Flat Reservoir has been designated by Congress
as a “Special Management Area,” reflecting its
popularity for fishing, picnicking, and camping, swimming
and whitewater boating. The impounded reach within Pine
Flat Reservoir provides outstanding flat-water boating opportunities
and world-class angling experiences for warm-water and cold-water
game fish. The reservoir boasts the world record Alabama
Spotted Bass, caught there in April of 2000.
Downstream
from Pine Flat Dam, the Kings River is an important recreation
asset to many riverside communities. Its fisheries are a
popular attraction. They are managed as a trout fishery,
utilizing cold tail-water from Pine Flat Reservoir. The
lower river fisheries are the subject of a recent Kings
River Fisheries Management Framework Agreement between the
State Department of Fish and Game, the Kings River Water
Association, and the Kings River Conservation District (the
latter also operates the lower Kings River floodway improvements).
The Framework Agreement presents a nationwide showcase example
of cooperation between water interests, public agencies
and the general public, in enhancing recreational fishing
values while maintaining important out-of stream beneficial
water uses.
Our
beautiful Kings River has come a very long way, since the
time when its prehistoric banks were occupied by Yokuts
fishermen and children. The river has witnessed intensive
development of its floodplain and water resources, which
have been the object of fierce water wars at times. These
times of development were followed by a more recent rebirth
of appreciation for the river’s outstandingly remarkable
aesthetic and recreational values. The Kings River today
exemplifies balance between the river’s in-stream and
out-of-stream values. Such an effective balance is far too
rare today to be taken for granted.
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