Tuolumne River
| Tuolumne River | |
 The Tuolumne River at Glen Aulin valley, below Tuolumne Meadows
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| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| State | California |
| Tributaries | |
| - left | South Fork Tuolumne River |
| - right | Cherry Creek, Clavey River, North Fork Tuolumne River |
| Source | Confluence of Lyell and Dana Forks |
| - location | Tuolumne Meadows, Yosemite National Park |
| - elevation | 8,589 ft (2,618 m) |
| - coordinates | 37°52′31″N 119°21′08″W / 37.87528°N 119.35222°W |
| Mouth | San Joaquin River |
| - location | Grayson, Stanislaus County |
| - elevation | 26 ft (8 m) |
| - coordinates | 37°36′21″N 121°10′25″W / 37.60583°N 121.17361°WCoordinates: 37°36′21″N 121°10′25″W / 37.60583°N 121.17361°W |
| Length | 148.7 mi (239 km) |
| Basin | 1,958 sq mi (5,071 km2) |
| Discharge | for above La Grange Dam |
| - average | 2,343 cu ft/s (66 m3/s) |
| - max | 130,000 cu ft/s (3,681 m3/s) |
| - min | 57 cu ft/s (2 m3/s) |
 The Tuolumne River watershed
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The Tuolumne River (/tuːˈɒləmiː/ "To All o' Me"; Yokutsan: Tawalimnu) flows for 149 miles (240 km) through Central California, from the high Sierra Nevada to join the San Joaquin River in the Central Valley. Originating at over 8,000 feet (2,400 m) above sea level in Yosemite National Park, the Tuolumne drains a rugged watershed of 1,958 square miles (5,070 km2), carving a series of canyons through the western slope of the Sierra. While the upper Tuolumne is a fast-flowing mountain stream, the lower river crosses a broad, fertile and extensively cultivated alluvial plain. Like most other central California rivers, the Tuolumne is dammed multiple times for irrigation and the generation of hydroelectricity.
Humans have inhabited the Tuolumne River area for up to 10,000 years. Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the river canyon provided an important summer hunting ground and a trade route between Native Americans in the Central Valley to the west and the Great Basin to the east. First named in 1806 by a Spanish explorer after a nearby indigenous village, the Tuolumne was heavily prospected during the California Gold Rush in the 1850s, and the lower valley was cultivated by American settlers over the next few decades. The city of Modesto grew up on the Tuolumne as a railroad hub, absorbing most of the population of the Tuolumne valley around the turn of the century. As agricultural production rose, farmers along the Tuolumne formed California's first two irrigation districts to better control and develop the river.
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Wikipedia