The Kaweah Delta ( historically also known as the " Four Creeks area " , after the four major branches of the Kaweah River ) was one of the earliest places in the San Joaquin Valley to be populated and farmed by U.S. settlers , although before the construction of Terminus Dam the entire area was frequently flooded ; the Great Flood of 1862 temporarily changed the course of the river , creating the distributary today known as St. John 's River . Agriculture began in the Kaweah Delta around 1864 when a group of local farmers dug the Consolidated Peoples ' Ditch . The people of Visalia hired Native Americans to extend a canal from Mill Creek to power the expanding settlement 's flour mill . In addition , multiple channels had to be dug to redirect the flow of St. John 's River back into the Kaweah , which had been blocked by sediment during the 1862 flood . It was not until after the Wright Act of 1887 , however , that farming expanded significantly . The Wright Act allowed the formation of the Tulare Irrigation District , which began to establish a network of canals across the Kaweah Delta . Surface water provided the main supply as late as 1900 , after which the area 's abundant groundwater reserves were pumped at increasing rates . Tulare Lake disappeared by the early 1900s , and by the 1930s , agricultural development had surpassed the capacity of local water resources
Great Flood of 1862
Great Flood of 1862
Kaweah River