Brief Park History

A Brief History of Millerton Lake

For thousands of years, several groups of Northern Foothill Yokuts lived in the rolling grasslands and woodlands of the region. The women crafted beautiful baskets used for both utilitarian and ceremonial purposes. The men harvested acorns and hunted deer, quail, and other game. The Yokuts were especially skilled at fishing for salmon, which they dried and stored for winter use.

The lives of the Yokuts were altered by the intrusion of settlers who brought diseases to which they had no immunity, depleted their food sources, and caused them to be displaced from their villages. Conflicts with the new arrivals ultimately led to the Mariposa Indian War, which ended in 1851 with the signing of a peace treaty at the U.S. military encampment known as Camp Barbour. An envoy had negotiated treaties with several California Indian groups, but Congress failed to ratify the treaties.

Camp Barbour was established in 1850. A tent city called Rootville, later changed to Millerton, sprang up and quickly prospered. It served as the Fresno County seat from 1856 to 1874. The area’s only courthouse was built in 1867. In 1872, the railroad came to Fresno Flats, later known as Fresno, a more economical place to live. Most of Millerton's residents relocated to Fresno to avoid the common flooding along the San Joaquin River, the most destructive event being on Christmas Eve 1867.

Fewer than 200 people lived in Millerton after the Southern Pacific steamed into Fresno. In 1874, the county seat followed suit in relocation by a vote, and the Millerton Courthouse was relegated to the elements. In 1941 the courthouse was dismantled and reconstructed on its present site at Mariner’s Point to protect it from rising floodwaters. The courthouse has been restored to look much as it did more than a century ago.

In the 1930s the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation proposed and initiated the Central Valley Project (CVP), a network of dams, reservoirs, and canals to address the state’s growing water needs. The Friant Dam, which forms Millerton Lake, is one of twenty facilities built under the CVP. The Friant dam with a capacity of 520,000 acre-feet delivers water to millions of agricultural lands in Fresno, Kern, Madera and Tulare counties via the Madera and Friant-Kern canals. In addition, the structure provides flood control and conservation storage.

The Bureau continues to operate the dam and manage the water. California State Parks has an operating agreement with the Bureau of Reclamation for the management of Millerton Lake. Park staff strives to maintain the park as a world class recreational park; upholding the departments mission in providing for the health, inspiration, and education of the people of California by helping to preserve the state's extraordinary biological diversity, protecting its most valued natural and cultural resources, and creating opportunities for high-quality outdoor recreation.

Natural Environment

Flora

Millerton Lake is situated between two major biomes: Blue Oak Woodland and Interior Chaparral in the upper reaches of the river. This ecoregion is defined by the dominant tree species, California Blue Oaks. Other common trees of the area are foothill pine, California buckeye, and interior live oak. Beneath the tree canopy shrubs may be found, amongst them are California coffeeberry, poison oak, blue elderberry, ceanothus, the occasional Holley leaf redberry, and toyon. In the spring, the grasslands have a wide assortment of wildflowers consisting mostly of fiddlenecks and popcorn flowers. For a more complete list of wildflowers, please refer to the park wildflower guide.

No plant life is established in the lake footprint, as fluctuating water levels prevent it from taking hold, beyond annual grasses and some aquatic plants.

Fauna

The park is home to a variety of animals. Ground squirrels and cottontail rabbits are the most abundant. Black tailed deer can be seen along the hills away from the main body of the lake. Coyotes and bobcats often lurk in search of their next meal. The park is also home to mountain lions, though sightings are rare.

Taking to the skies, our bird population is exceptionally diverse. Bald Eagles, golden eagles, red-tailed hawks, peregrine falcons, American kestrels, osprey, and many more birds of prey reap from the bountiful supply of rodents. Along the trails look out for California quail. lesser goldfinches, white-crowned sparrows, great-tailed grackles, common ravens, rock wrens, and acorn woodpeckers. On the water you will find thousands of gulls, dozens of American coots, western grebes, cormorants, Canada geese, amongst others.

Reptiles such as the western rattlesnake, western fence lizards, and alligator lizards are out and about as the weather gets warmer.

Geology

Millerton Lake is on the boundary of two geomorphic provinces, the Great Valley of California and Sierra Nevada. The Great Valley is an alluvial plain 50 miles wide and 400 miles long. Millerton Lake is situated at the precipice of the southernmost portion known as the San Joaquin Valley. Here the San Joaquin River enters the valley from its headwaters at 10,000 feet in elevation near Mammoth. The river continues its 360-mile journey to Suisun Bay in the San Francisco Bay area, where it drains into the Pacific Ocean.

The Sierra Nevada was created as a result of the subduction of the now extinct Farallon Plate under the North American Plate about 160 million years ago. This subduction resulted in the melting of the crust setting in motion the rise of magma bodies. Cooling slowly underground, the magma solidified forming plutons, or large bodies of igneous rock. Over time this rock we know as granite has been exposed through uplift and furthermore by process of weathering and erosion.

Table Mountains The table mountains are a prominent feature of the park. These flat top mountains, or mesas, show the ancestral course of the San Joaquin River about 10 million years ago. They were formed as result of a volcanic eruption of Takt Vent near Mammoth Mountain. Its lava flow filled the river canyon cooling to form the resilient rock, Andesite. The river now redirected continued its path carving away its current canyon, leaving its old path above. A world class example of inverted topography.