Calloway Canal is an irrigation canal owned by the North Kern Water Storage District in Kern County, California. It originates from the Kern River, just east of Golden State Highway (SR 204 freeway) in Bakersfield. It terminates at reservoirs located south of Whisler Road and east of SR 99 (Golden State Freeway), near McFarland. [1]
Kern County is a county in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 839,631. Its county seat is Bakersfield.
California is a state in the Pacific Region of the United States. With 39.6 million residents, California is the most populous U.S. state and the third-largest by area. The state capital is Sacramento. The Greater Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nation's second and fifth most populous urban regions, with 18.7 million and 8.8 million residents respectively. Los Angeles is California's most populous city, and the country's second most populous, after New York City. California also has the nation's most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The City and County of San Francisco is both the country's second-most densely populated major city after New York City and the fifth-most densely populated county, behind only four of the five New York City boroughs.
The Kern River, originally Rio de San Felipe, later La Porciuncula, is a river in the U.S. state of California, approximately 165 miles (270 km) long. It drains an area of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains northeast of Bakersfield. Fed by snowmelt near Mount Whitney, the river passes through scenic canyons in the mountains and is a popular destination for whitewater rafting and kayaking. It is the only major river in the Sierra Nevada mountain range that drains in a southerly direction.
From the diversion, the canal travels west, around industrial development before turning southwest. After crossing Rosedale Highway (SR 58), the canal makes a 120 degree turn, traveling northwest. It again crosses Rosedale Highway and then crosses the Friant-Kern Canal. The two canals run parallel to each other, traveling northwest. Although the canals run about 100 feet (30 m) apart, water flows in opposite directions. While the Calloway Canal is flowing northwest, the Friant-Kern Canal is flowing southeast. At Snow Road, the distance between the canals increases, although the two still run roughly parallel. The Calloway Canal terminates at reservoirs near McFarland.
State Route 58 is an east-west highway across the California Coast Ranges, the southern San Joaquin Valley, the Tehachapi Mountains, which border the southern Sierra Nevada, and the Mojave Desert. It runs between its western terminus near Santa Margarita and its eastern terminus in Barstow. It has junctions with Interstate 5 near Buttonwillow, State Route 99 in Bakersfield, State Route 202 in Tehachapi, State Route 14 in Mojave, and U.S. Route 395 at Kramer Junction. SR 58 gives good access to Edwards Air Force Base. At various points it is known as the Calf Canyon Highway, Carrisa Highway, Bakersfield-McKittrick Highway, Rosa Parks Highway, Rosedale Highway, Barstow-Bakersfield Highway, Kern County Korean War Veterans Memorial Highway, and Mojave-Barstow Highway.
The Friant-Kern Canal is a 152 mi (245 km) Central Valley Project aqueduct managed by the United States Bureau of Reclamation in Central California to convey water to augment irrigation capacity in Fresno, Tulare, and Kern counties. Construction began in 1949 and the canal was completed in 1951, at a cost of $60.8 million.
The construction of the Calloway Canal led to the water war between Henry Miller/Charles Lux and James Haggin/Lloyd Tevis. The result was the Haggin-Miller Water Agreement of 1888, in which a certain percentage of Kern River water was guaranteed to Miller/Lux. [2]
