Cherry Creek, Clavey River, North Fork Tuolumne River
National Wild and Scenic River
Type
Wild, Scenic, Recreational
Designated
September 28, 1984
The Tuolumne River/tuˈɒləmi/ (Yokutsan: Tawalimnu)[4] flows for 149 miles (240 km) through Central California, from the high Sierra Nevada to join the San Joaquin River in the Central Valley. Originating at over 8,000 feet (2,400 m) above sea level in Yosemite National Park, the Tuolumne drains a rugged watershed of 1,958 square miles (5,070 km2), carving a series of canyons through the western slope of the Sierra. While the upper Tuolumne is a fast-flowing mountain stream, the lower river crosses a broad, fertile and extensively cultivated alluvial plain. Like most other central California rivers, the Tuolumne is dammed multiple times for irrigation and the generation of hydroelectricity.
Humans have inhabited the Tuolumne River area for up to 10,000 years. Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the river canyon provided an important summer hunting ground and a trade route between Native Americans in the Central Valley to the west and the Great Basin to the east. First named in 1806 by a Spanish explorer after a nearby indigenous village, the Tuolumne was heavily prospected during the California Gold Rush in the 1850s, and the lower valley was cultivated by American settlers over the next few decades. The city of Modesto grew up on the Tuolumne as a railroad hub, absorbing most of the population of the Tuolumne valley around the turn of the century. As agricultural production rose, farmers along the Tuolumne formed California's first two irrigation districts to better control and develop the river.
From the 1900s to the 1930s, the river was dammed at Don Pedro and Hetch Hetchy to provide water for Central Valley farmers and the city of San Francisco, respectively. The Hetch Hetchy project, located inside Yosemite National Park, incited national controversy, and has been described as having forged the modern environmental movement in the United States.[5] As the mid-20th century progressed, demands on the Tuolumne continued to increase, culminating in the completion of New Don Pedro Dam in the early 1970s. These projects halved the amount of water flowing from the Tuolumne into the San Joaquin, greatly reducing the once-abundant runs of salmon and steelhead in both rivers.
^ ab"Tuolumne River". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior. January 19, 1981. Retrieved September 13, 2014.
^"Chapter 5.3 Tuolumne River System and Downstream Water Bodies". Preliminary Environmental Impact Report on SFPUC Water System Improvement Program. City & County of San Francisco Planning Department. 2005. Retrieved March 21, 2015.
^ ab"USGS Gage #11288000 on the Tuolumne River above La Grange Dam near La Grange, CA". National Water Information System. U.S. Geological Survey. 1911–1970. Retrieved September 13, 2014.
^Swanton, J.R. (1952). The Indian Tribes of North America. Bulletin (Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of American Ethnology). Genealogical Publishing Company. p. 505. ISBN 978-0-8063-1730-4.
^"A Century Later, the Battle for Hetch Hetchy Continues". Earth Island Institute. Retrieved October 12, 2015.
The TuolumneRiver /tuˈɒləmi/ (Yokutsan: Tawalimnu) flows for 149 miles (240 km) through Central California, from the high Sierra Nevada to join the San...
Tuolumne Meadows (/tuˈɒləmi/) is a gentle, dome-studded, sub-alpine meadow area along the TuolumneRiver in the eastern section of Yosemite National Park...
Tuolumne may refer to: TuolumneRiver, one of the major rivers draining the western slope of the Sierra Nevada mountains Tuolumne Grove, of giant sequoia...
Creek TuolumneRiver Dry Creek New Don Pedro Dam, Lake Don Pedro Moccasin Creek Sullivan Creek Woods Creek North Fork TuolumneRiver Clavey River Hull...
the northwestern part of Yosemite National Park and is drained by the TuolumneRiver. For thousands of years before the arrival of settlers from the United...
Canyon of the Tuolumne is the notable canyon section of the river valley of the TuolumneRiver, located within Yosemite National Park, in Tuolumne County and...
Tuolumne Grove is a giant sequoia grove located near Crane Flat in Yosemite National Park, at the southeastern edge of the TuolumneRiver watershed. It...
The TuolumneRiver Regional Park is a large urban park under development along a seven-mile (11 km) stretch of the TuolumneRiver between the cities of...
River is a tributary of the TuolumneRiver in the Sierra Nevada, located in the Stanislaus National Forest and Tuolumne County, California. The river...
Peak is also nearby. The Glen Aulin High Sierra Camp is located on the TuolumneRiver at an elevation of 7,800 feet (2,400 m), and was one of the original...
formed by the construction of the New Don Pedro Dam across the TuolumneRiver in Tuolumne County, California, United States. The California Office of Environmental...
800 feet (240 m) above Tuolumne Meadows and the TuolumneRiver and can be hiked starting at the Tioga Road in the heart of Tuolumne Meadows, 8 miles (13 km)...
Mount Lyell "2008 Pack Stock Use Assessment in Subalpine Meadows of the TuolumneRiver Watershed" (PDF). NPS. Retrieved 1 February 2019. Equine trekking, through...
The North Fork TuolumneRiver is a 35.7-mile (57.5 km) long river in the central Sierra Nevada of Tuolumne County, California and is a major tributary...
giant, spike-toothed salmon, Oncorhynchus rastrosus and the "Proto-TuolumneRiver" (early Pliocene) of Central California". PaleoBios. 33: 1–16. doi:10...
Stanislaus, Tuolumne, and Merced River tributaries). The southern third of the range is drained by the Kings, Kaweah, Tule, and Kern rivers, which flow...
(1 January 2016). "The giant, spike-toothed salmon, and the "Proto-TuolumneRiver" (early Pliocene) of Central California". PaleoBios. 33: 13. doi:10...
Canyon of the TuolumneRiver Hetch Hetchy Valley Kings Canyon Long Valley Caldera Owens Valley San Joaquin Valley Sacramento Valley Tuolumne Meadows Yosemite...
its largest tributary, the Tuolumne. Near Vernalis, it is joined by another major tributary, the Stanislaus River. The river passes between Manteca and...