Eventually, the berm divided the north and south sides of the Gulf. The lake left to the north dried up. The Gulf to the south was pushed further and further south as segments continued to be deposited.

The river itself was fickle in where it flowed. Depending upon its sediment deposits, it would change course, flowing sometimes south around the large berm to the Gulf and sometimes north to the Salton Sea basin. Today’s New and Alamo Rivers flow in former Colorado River water courses. For roughly the last million years, the river has changed course, leaving sediments on both sides of the berm and freshwater lakes behind in the Salton Sink.

“Many people think that the Salton Sea is a man-made lake,” says Salton Sea Authority Board Member, Corky Larson “Over thousands of years the meandering Colorado River Delta created many Salton Seas. All these giant lakes were really natural phenomena,” Larson added.

“Over thousands of years the meandering Colorado River Delta created many Salton Seas.”
– Corky Larson,
Salton Sea Authority Board Member

In a December 2000 report, entitled “An Inventory and Evacuation of Lake Cahuilla Cultural Resources along Imperial Irrigation District’s SA-Line, San Diego and Imperial Counties”, authors Jerry Schaefer, Ph.D., RPA and Ken Moslak, Associate Archaeologist note that “One of the most dynamic and dramatic aspects of the Colorado Desert paleoenvironment affecting human occupation was the flooding of the Salton Trough to form ancient Lake Cahuilla.”

When the Salton basin filled completely, the lake was approximately six times the size of the current Salton Sea.

The Imperial and Coachella Valleys filled with water in about 18 years to form the largest fresh water lake in California. It was 110 miles long, and 32 miles wide, and over 280 feet deep at the center.“The lake filled to an elevation of 40 ft above sea level, the height of the Colorado Delta that acted as a dam,” according to the Schaefer report. It adds, “Radiocarbon dates from marsh deposits and archaeological sites around the lake indicate three to four major lacustrine phases (periods when the lake was filled) over the last 2000 years, each lasting several hundred years.”

In fact, while more research is needed, it is possible the river may have flowed north to the Salton basin more often than it did to the gulf over that time.”

“There were also partial infillings and many fluctuations in lake levels. Recent research has also demonstrated that there was at least a partial infilling as recently as A.D. 1600-1700 (Schaefer 1994, 2000 Laylander 1994, 1995),” Schaefer writes.

A number of smaller lakes existed after 1600, including nine during the 1800s. Shoreline evidence of travertine deposits, mollusk and fish remains, vegetative evidence, and tribal sites document the history of the lakes.

The 2000 Schaefer report: “Each time the lake filled, Indians from the Colorado River on the east and the Peninsular Range and desert fringes to the west established seasonal settlements along the sandy beaches of the shoreline… The lake provided abundant fish, a species of freshwater mollusk, migratory waterfowl, cattail, reeds, and other marsh vegetation especially on the western side of the lake, stone fish traps were constructed in the shallow waters to take advantage of natural fish behavior to hide in rocky enclosures when startled or during spawning. Today, parallel lines of these V-shaped stone traps can be seen from aerial photographs in the now dry desert where the prehistoric ancestors of the Cahuilla and Kumeyaay (Kamia) Indians fished and where they built new lines of traps as the lake waters receded.”

The Schaeffer report notes that “formation of Lake Cahuilla was so important that at least one Cahuilla lineage preserved the oral history of the event, describing how they were forced from the low basin by the rising waters. They later returned down to the shoreline to fish, gradually descending to lower elevations as the waters retreated.”.

Knowledge Of Salton Sea’s Currents Helps Locate Capsized Boaters

On a clear, sunny day, its crisp blue waters create a beautiful panorama against the desert floor and an easy boat ride for fishermen and hunters. But if the winds pick up or the weather turns sour, California’s largest lake can be very dangerous to people unlucky enough to be caught on its open waters.

Area residents can remember a number of rescues on the Salton Sea.

The latest occurred about 2 p.m. on January 3rd, when three people, including an 11-year-old boy, were rescued by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Rangers and the Authority’s contract Wildlife Biologist, after the victims’ 17-foot boat overturned in rough seas.

Participating in the rescue were Daniel Gomez, USFWS Deputy Project Leader, Chris Artmann, Outdoor Recreation Planner, Tom Anderson, Salton Sea Authority Wildlife Biologist and Elaine Stambaugh, a Salton Sea Authority volunteer. All work at the Sonny Bono Wildlife Refuge.

The group became involved in the rescue effort on Saturday morning Jan. 3, when Gomez happened to catch radio traffic on the Sheriff’s frequency about a possible boat in trouble on the Salton Sea.

The San Diego Union Tribune identified the three rescuees as Ryan Morey, 11, of Linda Vista, his father, Jeffrey Morey, 36, of Poway, and Vincent Sachak, 65, of San Jacinto. They had been on a duck hunting trip.

The hunters had used a cell phone to report that their boat was having motor troubles earlier in the day and they were attempting to return to the Red Hill Marina. A second phone call then came with a report that they were taking on water in high winds and heavy seas. The call was cut off in mid-sentence and no further contact could be made with the party.

The hunters were spotted by Anderson about six hours later, clinging to the bottom of their capsized boat two miles off shore.

Imperial County sheriff’s sergeant Don Cole told the Union Tribune the hunters “were wet and tired, but otherwise OK.”

The success of the search was attributed to Tom Anderson’s knowledge of the sea and its currents. Anderson spotted the people from his refuge airboat when he stopped in the area of Obsidian Butte. Before then, the search had focused on the vicinity of the New River in more shallow waters there, with the theory that the strong winds from the north and west would have pushed any disabled vessel in that direction.

“Tom knew the surface winds were rarely strong enough to counter the sub-surface currents in that area, so he looked where no one else had,” according to a report of the incident.

Annual Salton Sea Bird Festival Set For February

The Salton Sea Authority will again be partnering with organizers of the Salton Sea International Bird Festival, an event that annually draws several hundred bird enthusiasts to the region.

Over the past several years the Authority also has participated in the event as an exhibitor and has routinely provided guest speakers.

The Salton Sea has been called “California’s Everglades” because of its outstanding avian biodiversity.

The Authority will be providing $10,000 to the festival for this year’s event, which runs from February 13 to 16. Festival headquarters will be at the Imperial Valley Expo in the City of Imperial.

The Salton Sea is considered one of the premier bird watching areas in the United States.

The lake teems with bird life because of its location along the Pacific Flyway, and is one of the few remaining wetlands in California. More than 90 percent of the wetlands in the region have been lost due to urbanization and other reasons

Some scientists have called the Salton Sea “California’s crown jewel of avian biodiversity.” There are more than 400 species of birds that visit or live at the sea.

Additional information on the festival may be obtained from the Festival’s web site at www.newriverwetlands.com/saltonsea.html..