Lily Lake in Emmigrant?

[kpeter]

Another thread pointed out the historic layer on CalTopo, which is fantastic and I have been having fun playing with it. One of the differences between the old maps and the modern one I have noticed is that they show a lake in Emmigrant "Lily Lake" which now is replaced with a much smaller "Mud Lake." I have been by the turnoff for Mud Lake a few times and have never gone over to see it. Is this a case of a larger lake from more than 100 years ago silting in and ultimately being renamed?

It is also interesting to see how few of the lakes that are currently in Emigrant are on the old maps, and how much smaller they are if they appear at all. I take it that this is because of Leighton's influence in creating or expanding them in the 1930s. In the absence of his maintenance of the check dams, I imagine Emigrant will start to look more like the historic maps than the modern ones.

[mort]

Hi Peter,
Very interesting! Have you seen other areas with as much change?
The old map shows a Lily Lake on Lily creek, and that lake may be gone now or called Mud Lake and the creek has moved east. However, there is a (tiny) Lily Lake on current maps, its a bit east of Lily Creek and its in the trail between Camp Lake and Piute Meadow. But it is only called Lily Lake because Lily Pond is a bit twee.
About the old map vs new map. It is amazing! Big Lake is new? No old Yellowhammer? No Rosasco. No Bear Lake, but Gertrude is gone!
I agree that without maintenance many of today's lakes will revert. Some of the"new" lakes are big & fed by big watersheds. They may be around a long time. The outlet of Big Lake looks natural. Camp Lake look temporary. And bear Lake's dam is crumbling.
-mort

[wildhiker]

I think the old maps didn't show as many lakes because they didn't have aerial photography and just missed things in their groun surveys.
-Phil

[kpeter]

I think the old maps didn't show as many lakes because they didn't have aerial photography and just missed things in their ground surveys.
-Phil

Yes, I think this must be true for a fair bit of this, although Emigrant is a special case because of Leighton's extensive interventions. Big Lake I agree looks natural to me--I made a case of studying it when I was there because it was so different from many of the others in vicinity. No check dam. But the old map shows Hyatt clearly. Hyatt must have been better explored than neighboring Big lake.