Tulare Live Cam

History

Long before the arrival of European settlers, the land around what is now Tulare was home to indigenous peoples, notably the Yokuts tribes who thrived along waterways and the historic Tulare Lake shore. Their lives were guided by seasonal rhythms: fishing in spring, gathering acorns and other native plants in autumn, and moving with game migrations. Oral traditions speak of a landscape rich in resources, where communities established deep connections to the land, water, and the cycles of nature.

With the era of Spanish exploration came the mapping of California’s interior, though the dense marshes and vast lake bed around Tulare Lake often discouraged permanent missions or large livestock operations in this immediate area. Under Mexican rule, large ranchos claimed broad swaths of land, and occasional cattle or horse herds grazed on grasses near the lake margins. The lake itself, at times the largest freshwater body west of the Mississippi, shaped travel routes: explorers and early travelers skirted its edges, noting its seasonal fluctuations and the challenge of crossing marshy expanses when water levels rose.