Kit Baxter-Lake Temescal 1959


Description:
Kit Baxter, age 8, on raft, and Norma Darby (behind), Lake Temescal, Oakland Calif. Kit Baxter s family lived at 443 43rd Street in Temescal; the Darby family lived in the house on the southwest corner of Lawton Avenue and Cavour Street. [Terry Hatcher (neé Baxter) note]

Date of Document:
Jun-59

Document Author:
Unknown (likely Jeanne Baxter or Martha Darby)

Geographic Location:
Lake Temescal, Oakland, Calif.

Context:
In the 1866, French Canadian-born Anthony Chabot, who earned his reputation as the father of hydraulic mining in the Sierra Nevada during the Gold Rush, founded the Contra Costa Water Company and began construction of an earthen dam in the hills above Oakland. He chose as the site for the dam the confluence of Temescal Creek and one of its main tributaries known today as the Tunnel Branch. Built largely by Chinese laborers, the dam was completed in 1868, creating Lake Temescal (originally named Lake Chabot) and Oakland s first municipal water supply. But even before its completion, Chabot and others understood that the reservoir would be insufficient to meet the fresh water needs of Oakland s growing population. In 1874, Chabot turned his attention to building an even larger reservoir by damming San Leandro Creek. In 1936, Lake Temescal (which straddles the Hayward fault) was among the first three public parks established by the East Bay Regional Park District. Its stone Beach House, built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), was completed in 1940. Erosion resulting from the addition of the third bore to the Caldecott Tunnel in the 1960s and the construction of Highway 24 (the Grove-Shafter Freeway) approach to the Caldecott Tunnel in the early 1970s caused a dramatic increase in sediment in Lake Temescal. In the late 1970s, the reservoir was dredged and other measures were taken to help reduce sedimentation.





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