Today it’s a scenic recreation spot on the edge of the UC Merced campus. But it also has a long history dating back to Merced’s earliest days. The story of Lake Yosemite, today on KVPR’s Central Valley Roots.
First, some geography: Lake Yosemite is a man-made reservoir about five miles northeast of downtown Merced, where the flat valley floor begins to meet the rolling terrain of the foothills. It’s fed by the Main Canal that diverts water from the Merced River near Snelling, and directs flows south to land near the City of Merced. Lake Yosemite’s waters are then distributed to farmland downstream via the Fairfield Canal and the Le Grand Canal, both of which flow through the UC Merced campus.
So how did the lake come to be? Well, it all starts with two men, C.H. Huffman, a farmer known as the “Wheat King” and wealthy banker and railroad magnate Charles F. Crocker. In the 1870s they formed the Merced Canal and Irrigation Company, and later the Crocker Huffman Land and Water Company. The company owned and developed vast tracts and colony farm developments, which would be irrigated by a series of canals and a lake.
Construction on Lake Yosemite began in 1883 and was completed in 1888. The following year a pipeline was completed providing domestic service to the city, fed from a ornate tower in the lake that still exists today. In 1921, the company sold its water business to the new Merced Irrigation District, for $2.25 million dollars.
