The Resurrection of Tulare Lake

CORCORAN — Crisscrossing the dry flatlands of the San Joaquin Valley last week, I drove along a narrow country road just outside this small agricultural town known as the “Farming Capital of California,” tilled dirt fields on either side of me as far as the eye could see. And then, suddenly, water. A vast inland sea rose beside the pavement, and the waters glittered far out into the horizon. A crane flapped its snowy white wings along the banks of the newly formed lake. Shorebirds twittered and blue-gray waves lapped and whooshed, bringing the sounds of the beach to the…