1985 Map of Lower Klamath Lake

About this map

The Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge dominates this mid-1980s survey, revealing a landscape defined by water management and conservation along the California-Oregon border. The area is a complex network of levees, canals, and dikes that regulate the waters of Lower Klamath Lake and White Lake. This man-made hydrological system transformed the region from natural marshland into a patchwork of inundation zones and managed basins, visible here as the refuge borders the timbered slopes of the Modoc National Forest. Distinctive landmarks such as Coyote Point and Fairchild Island rise above the wetlands, while Chalk Bank Landing marks a point of access along the eastern refuge boundary. To the south, the terrain shifts abruptly as the flat marshlands meet the rising elevations of the Big Tableland, reflecting the transition from the lake basin to the volcanic plateaus of Siskiyou County.