Fresno River

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The Fresno River just below Hidden Dam in Madera County, California.

The Fresno River is a river in Central California and a major tributary of the San Joaquin River.  It runs approximately 45 miles from the Sierra Nevada Range to the San Joaquin River.

Contents

1 River Source
2 Lakes and Dams
3 Lower river and confluence with the San Joaquin
4 Towns
5 References

River Source

The Fresno's headwaters are on the western side of the Sierra Nevada Range, in northeastern Madera County about 45 miles east-northeast of Merced. From its source, it flows south to Oakhurst, then west for several miles, then southwest to Hensley Lake.

Lakes and Dams

Hidden Dam is the only major storage dam on the Fresno River. The dam forms Hensley Lake, a 90,000 acre-foot reservoir. The United States Army Corps of Engineers built the earth-fill dam, which was completed in 1974. Its primary purpose is flood control, but it is also used to regulate flows for irrigation and groundwater recharge. In 1978, the lake was opened to the public for recreation and is a popular boating and fishing destination for locals.

Below Hidden Dam, the Fresno River flows southwest along Road 400, receiving additional water from Madera Lake (a man-made reservoir created by a dam built on an unnamed tributary of the Fresno River), to the John Franchi Diversion Dam, a 15-foot high, 263 foot-wide earth and steel dam that is used to divert water into the Madera Canal. The dam was built by the United States Bureau of Reclamation in 1964 and is operated by the Madera Irrigation District. Below this dam, the river is normally dry. The only time water is released past the John Franchi Diversion Dam is when water levels are high enough to spill over the dam.

Lower river and confluence with the San Joaquin

A diagram of the Fresno River's flow through man-made channels where the original riverbed no longer exists.

Below the John Franchi Diversion Dam, the Fresno River flows southwest to Madera, then flows west until it is just about a mile east of the San Joaquin River. It briefly flows northwest, roughly parallel to the San Joaquin, before it merges with it, just after California State Route 152 passes over them, about 20 miles west-northwest of Madera.

West of Road 17, the Fresno River's natural riverbed has been subject to much intervention by man and as a result, the natural riverbed has many gaps in it, which are now connected by man-made canals.

At Road 17, the natural riverbed has been modified to divert most flows into a manmade canal, which leads to the Eastside Bypass. Water can also be allowed to continue flowing down the main river channel (north of the manmade canal), but that water now ends up in the Bypass as well.

Once in the Bypass, water can exit via a small channel at a diversion dam and continue west along the natural riverbed the rest of the way to the San Joaquin River. Between the Eastside Bypass and Route 152, the riverbed has been subject to straightening, but more or less follows its natural course.

At the point where the Fresno River meeets the San Joaquin River, water from the Fresno has the option of continuing a northward flow into the Mariposa Slough.

Towns

Towns along the Fresno River include:

Oakhurst (Unincorporated)
Madera

References

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