Harper Lake
| Harper Lake | |
|---|---|
Harper Dry Lake Marsh, diminished by years of agricultural diversion
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| Location |
Mojave Desert San Bernardino County, California |
| Coordinates | 35°01′50″N 117°17′24″W / 35.0305°N 117.2900°WCoordinates: 35°01′50″N 117°17′24″W / 35.0305°N 117.2900°W |
| Lake type | Endorheic basin |
| Basin countries | United States |
| Max. length | 16 km (9.9 mi) |
| Max. width | 7 km (4.3 mi) |
| Shore length1 | 45 km (28 mi) |
| Surface elevation | 617 m (2,024 ft) |
| Settlements | Lockhart, California |
| References | U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Harper Lake |
| 1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure. | |
Harper Lake is a dry lake located in the Mojave Desert near the small community of Lockhart in northwestern San Bernardino County of Southern California. The lake is accessible from Harper Lake Road, which runs north off of State Route 58 midway between Boron and Barstow.
Harper Lake contained water and a natural marsh into the early 20th century when agricultural development began to deplete the groundwater that sustained its level. The lake and marsh wetlands attracted large numbers of migrating birds and supported a variety of resident desert wildlife in the oasis habitat. Sustained by a small amount of surface runoff from nearby farms, only the southwest corner of the reduced lake remained marshland. Into the early 1990s, the wildlife was still supported by the remnant habitat.
The lake became dry and the marsh died in the late 1990s after the alfalfa farm next to the lake shut down and the migrating and resident wildlife dropped. When a new solar power plant was built just to the west of the lake 35°01′54″N 117°20′53″W / 35.0316°N 117.348°W, it needed to pump groundwater to the lake. However, this never occurred because the company that owned the plant went bankrupt. After the bankruptcy was resolved, the concerns of Edwards Air Force Base regarding bird strikes and other bureaucratic issues halted restoration progress.
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