Controvesies Concerning Bravo Lake in Wodlake, California

Photo courtesy of Marcy Miller. Images of America Woodlake pgs 10-11.

Woodlake first earned its name "Bravo!" after the cheers of several Yokuts watching a fight between a couple of white boys, Thomas Fowler and Swamp John, in the 1850s. The lake has remained both a main attraction in the Woodlake Valley foothill area, and a continued source of fighting. Unfortunately a levee built up all the way around it obscures viewing the .46 square mile lake from the street. As I started writing Images of America Woodlake, I had many questions. When did Bravo Lake appear, was it man-made, and why would the town want to hide its main attraction? The picture below is from Pogue's book covering the years 1853-1943.  Can you guess the year in which this picture might have been taken?

In 1910, Gilbert Stevenson, the millionaire who purchased Blair's property with the intent to build a tourist town in the Woodlake Valley, had plans to develop the lake.  "Steve R. Webb, Real Estate agent, had bought up a large tract of level land from Blair and others north and west of Bravo Lake. Now, to the utter surprise of everyone, except (Gilbert) Stevenson (millionaire from Los Angeles who had the vision to build a town around Bravo Lake),..., the lake suddenly found itself rechristened, and the town of Woodlake sprang up beside it in a phenomenally short period of time." Pogue 37.  

from the Official Historical Atlas Map of Tulare County Thos. H. Thompson. Tulare, California. 1892 Reprinted by Bear State Books in Exeter, CA

Looking for evidence to find out whether the lake was man-made or natural, my neighbor Gary Davis and I poured over the 1892 Atlas of Tulare County that has been reprinted, and found the salmon filet-shaped lake on the map long printed seventy years before Terminus Dam was built on the Kaweah River.  Jonathan Blair, founder of the Presbyterian church, owned the property around the lake. What I found was more evidence for controversy, heated debates and lawsuits.

Notice the Wutchumna Irrigation Ditch from Bravo Lake across the valley.  Water rights in this area were in 1892, and still are a much-contested item in California.  Nobody wants to share their water.  This region of California is dry most of the year receiving less than 10 inches of rain annually.  However, there are many rivers, canals, and springs that are used to irrigate crops.  The work of digging and redefining the landscape in Tulare County began almost as soon as settlers appeared, but whenever a shovel changed the flow of water, new water rights issues appeared.  

Gilbert Stevenson purchased two large tracts of land: the 1,500 acres that became Woodlake and the 1,300 acres that he named Sentinel Butte Ranch.  Courtney McCracken managed Sentinel Butte Ranch after his father Henry passed away.  As part of Stevenson's Woodlake city property purchase agreement of Lot 176, the Wutchumna Water Company retained "the rights which included the storage of water thereon and the right to use the earth for the purpose of building levy. The right to use the land for every other purpose was specifically retained by Mr. Blair and his assigns." With this right, Stevenson spent the grand sum of $135,000 improving the lake. He had the sides/levies built up to make the lake deeper.  He bought three steamboats to run excursions on the lake. He planned a great hotel on the west bank and an excursion train to run all the way around the perimeter on the banks.  He planned three islands in the lake: each for a different purpose; one for a bandstand and dancing, one for bathing, and one for something else. Then the Great Depression hit, Stevenson lost his fortune in Los Angeles, and shortly thereafter died in poverty. 

P. A. Little owned the property from 1920-1927 sold part of it, ran cattle on the property and used it for fishing, but often ordered people to stay off the property. James Deacon lived on the land from 1920 - 1924 during which time an unknown company dynamited the property. Deacon became a deputy sheriff and the Wutchumna Water Company hired him to keep people out of the lake and paid for repairs to the fence around the lake.  In 1924 Mr. Weaver, an engineer and deputy game warden "planted bass in the lake furnished by the state fish and game commission." Lot 176 was eventually deeded to Stevenson's former ranch manager, Courtney McCracken, who removed the Water Company's padlocks and opened the lake to the public.

April 29, 1932 Woodlake Echo published a letter from James B. Rivers, President of Wutchumna Water Company, bringing the paper to task for publishing false information about the lake. The water district wrote, "It was therein stated that the Wutchumna Water Company had assumed liability and responsibility for the creation of certain ponds East of Woodlake. This as you know from the discussions at the meetings of our Board of Directors attended by you is incorrect." The August 5, 1932 edition of the Woodlake Echo reported on the testimony of Mrs. Chatten, manager for the Wutchumna Water Company. Attorneys presented evidence from deeds dating back to 1887 agreements between Jonathan Blair and the Pioneer Ditch company allowing Blair to pasture stock and get water from the lake. Another witness, Mr. Frances Smith, a construction engineer, stated the the dirt levees around the lake were not strong enough to withstand spray from motorboats, and would dissolve. It also reported testimoney of a Mr. Watson who managed the Lindsay-Strathmore Irrigation District who stated that water from Bravo Lake was used for domestic purposes by people in his water district.

McCracken spent three years fighting in court against the Ivanhoe Irrigation District for the right to use the water on his land. He won the right to use the water from the "Central Valley Project, and the Bureau of Reclamation's 9-E contract was declared unconstitutional because it denied the individual use of the water on his own property, which went against state water laws." 

I don't have much recent information about Bravo Lake, and its current controversies, but people enjoy walking, biking and horseback riding on the levees around it. The gates are no longer padlocked, and the signs posted on the fences that still surround the lake are illegible. As early as 1972 Manuel and Olga Jiminez started work on the 15 acre Bravo Lake Botanical Gardens that flank the north side of the lake. The gardens officially opened in 2003. You can read more about this source of Woodlake Pride on the Tulare County Treasures Website at the link above.

Photo courtesy of Marcy Miller. 

If you have additional information about Woodlake's controversial Bravo Lake, please email me at tchistorygal@gmail.com.