Tulelake, CA

Tulelake is a Siskiyou County city in the Tule Lake Basin near the Modoc County line, about 30 miles south of Klamath Falls, Oregon. The 2020 census counted 902 residents. The town sits on the Modoc Plain, a flat volcanic basin once occupied by a much larger shallow lake; about 60,000 acres now support irrigated agriculture. Tulelake was established in 1937 as federal Bureau of Reclamation irrigation projects were expanding the basin, so farming and water management remain part of its present map.

ATTRA. E. Crane, U.S. Department of Transportation / Public domain

Nearby Tule Lake National Monument holds a difficult national history. The Tule Lake Segregation Center was the largest of the ten War Relocation Authority camps for Japanese Americans forcibly removed from the West Coast; 18,789 people were incarcerated there at its 1944 peak, and the National Park Service preserves the stockade, jail, and other historic remains. The city also hosts the Tulelake-Butte Valley Fair, and Tulelake Basin Joint Unified schools serve the surrounding agricultural community. Tulelake's present-day farm calendar sits alongside a site that records a major breach of civil liberties.