Lake Temescal c1942 6

Description:
Description: Friends of Clarence Koop (l-r): Jerry Durkin, Harold Davenport, Frank Navarra, and Tom Rowland, at the public beach, Lake Temescal (looking northerly), Oakland Calif.Jerry Durkin became a building inspector for the city of San Francisco. Frank Navarra served in the San Francisco Fire Department, reaching the rank of captain. Clarence Koop was a teacher and principal for the San Francisco Public School district. (From a conversation with Clarence Koop)

Date of Document:
1942 or 1943

Document Author:
Clarence Koop (1927-2010)

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.