Goose Lake lies along the California- Oregon border just west of Highway 395.
While Goose Lake has a 82 miles shoreline when full, the lake level rises and falls with rain and snow resulting in an average shoreline of only 64 miles. The day this author visited, it was probably no more than a dozen. The average depth is only 8 feet and 24 feet at the maximum. The lake at maximum measures 29 miles long and 10 miles wide. The lake has dried up completely in 1851,1852, 1926, 1929-1934, and 1992.
The Great Basin covers portions of western Utah, eastern California, southeast Oregon, Idaho, and most of Nevada. This 200,000 square mile basin has no outlet to the ocean and it is only in that water evaporates as fast as it falls as rain and snow that not since the ice age has the water level risen enough to spill over to the sea. Many similar lakes populate the basin such as Mono, Great Salt Lake, and many dry lakes. The basin is still stretching and cracking as the thin crust gets thinner. It's possible that in the distant future, the East Pacific Rise rift zone may split allowing the Gulf of California to flow into this region.
People first inhabited the region about 12,000 years ago. The Spanish first explored the area about late 18th Century, with Hudson Bay Company trappers wandering through a few years later. John C. Fremont created the first accurate map of the area about the 1840, it was organized into the Oregon (1848) and Utah Territories (1850) and the State of California (1850). Today this region is considered one of the most remote and thinly populated areas of the continental United States.
See images from the east side along the border.
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From the causeway that cuts through the southern end.
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From the causeway.
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This page last updated: Thursday, 24-Dec-2009 10:11:00 CST
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Note: This is not the official site for any of the places shown in Places Earth. Places Earth is not responsible for accuracy of the information. Hours of operations, prices, exhibits, and sometimes locations are subject to change without notice.
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