Treasures revealed as Calif. drought drains lakes
By Javier Panzar, Los Angeles Times
The Lakeview Motel’s name is false advertising these dry days.
The same thing is true for the Paradise Cove Lodge down California 178.
That’s because the water level in man-made Lake Isabella has dropped about 59 feet since the last big wet year in 2011. There are 32,632 acre-feet of water in the lake — 5.8 percent of the lake’s capacity, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The water level is low enough that dozens of ghostly white cottonwood trees at the bottom of the lake have emerged from the water.
The roads leading to three submerged towns beneath Lake Oroville are being slowly exposed as well, said Mike Hubbartt, a state park interpreter at the lake. Officials are checking to make sure hikers don’t steal old artifacts there, he said.
In many ways, unearthing the past is a ritual of the drought cycle.