San Joaquin River
| San Joaquin River | |
 San Joaquin River near Vernalis
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| Name origin: c. 1805-1808 by Gabriel Moraga for Saint Joachim, father of Mary, the mother of Jesus | |
| Country | United States |
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| State | California |
| Tributaries | |
| - left | Fresno Slough |
| - right | Merced River, Tuolumne River, Stanislaus River, Mokelumne River |
| Cities | Fresno, Modesto, |
| Source | Thousand Island Lake |
| - location | Ansel Adams Wilderness, Sierra Nevada |
| - elevation | 9,839 ft (2,999 m) |
| - coordinates | 37°43′56″N 119°10′34″W / 37.73222°N 119.17611°W |
| Mouth | Suisun Bay |
| - location | Antioch, Contra Costa/Solano Counties |
| - elevation | 0 ft (0 m) |
| - coordinates | 38°04′00″N 121°51′04″W / 38.06667°N 121.85111°WCoordinates: 38°04′00″N 121°51′04″W / 38.06667°N 121.85111°W |
| Length | 366 mi (589 km) |
| Basin | 15,600 sq mi (40,404 km2) |
| Discharge | for Vernalis, 78 mi (126 km) from the mouth |
| - average | 5,110 cu ft/s (145 m3/s) |
| - max | 325,000 cu ft/s (9,203 m3/s) |
| - min | 30 cu ft/s (1 m3/s) |
 San Joaquin River watershed, including the Tulare Basin
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The San Joaquin River /ˈsæn wɑːˈkiːn/ is the longest river of Central California in the United States. The 366-mile (589 km) long river starts in the high Sierra Nevada, and flows through the rich agricultural region of the northern San Joaquin Valley before reaching Suisun Bay, San Francisco Bay, and the Pacific Ocean. An important source of irrigation water as well as a wildlife corridor, the San Joaquin is among the most heavily dammed and diverted of California's rivers.
People have inhabited the San Joaquin Valley for more than 8,000 years, and it was long one of the major population centers of pre-Columbian California. Starting in the late 18th century, successive waves of explorers then settlers, mainly Spanish and American, emigrated to the San Joaquin basin, first exploiting then driving out the indigenous tribes. The newcomers quickly appropriated the rich natural and hydrologic resources of the watershed for use in farms and cities, but found themselves plagued by flood and drought. Because of the uniform topography of the San Joaquin Valley, floods once transformed much of the lower river into a huge inland sea.
In the 20th century, many levees and dams were built on the San Joaquin and all of its major tributaries. These engineering works changed the fluctuating nature of the river forever, and cut off the Tulare Basin from the rest of the San Joaquin watershed. Once habitat for hundreds of thousands of spawning salmon and millions of migratory birds, today the river is subject to tremendous water-supply, navigation and regulation works by various federal agencies, which have dramatically reduced the flow of the river since the 20th century.
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Wikipedia