Central Valley

Dos Amigos Pumping Plant

The Dos Amigos Pumping Plant near Los Banos shunts water south in the California Aqueduct. Thirsty farms and cities "downstream" in the San Joaquin Valley and southern California await this liquid gold.

Murky Waters

Black Butte Lake is a reservoir created by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1963, ostensibly for flood control. The lake's waters have recently been the subject of concern. For nearly two decades now anglers have been warned about consuming the lake's fish due to the presence of methylmercury. And in 2019, the lake tested positive for toxic algal blooms, prompting state officials to warn people not to drink the water and limit their exposure to it.

World's Smallest Mountain Range

One of the few features with any significant relief in the Central Valley are the Sutter Buttes. Located in the Sacramento Valley, near Yuba City, this circular complex of eroded lava domes rises over 2,000 feet above the flat plains below. The domes started forming some 1.6 million years ago as magma pushed its way up through the overlying sediments. The buttes are somewhat jokingly referred to as "the world's smallest mountain range." They only cover about 78 square miles.

Fields of Gold

California is not the country's leading wheat producer. That would be Kansas. Nonetheless, 217,000 acres of wheat with a value of nearly $90 million were harvested here in the state in 2016.

Fields of Gold: Part II

Wheat is a dryland crop that can be raised with little or no irrigation, depending on the variety cultivated. As such, wheat was well-suited to the warm, sunny weather of the Central Valley when it was introduced here shortly after the Gold Rush. But overplanting of this crop in the late 19th Century soon led to soil exhaustion. Farmers quickly switched to other crops such as barley. Today the number of acres planted with wheat in California is a fraction of what it once was. But wheat yields have increased over five-fold due to advances in technology and farming techniques.