LAKE SHASTA, Calif.—Longtime bait and tackle shop owner Bob Braz has seen droughts come and go at Shasta Lake, nestled in California’s upper Central Valley, but 1976-77 was the worst on record.
The two-year drought left the lake’s water level 238 feet below its 1,067-foot mark at total capacity, exposing vast swathes of rocky lake bed and debris.
“That was pretty bad,” said Braz, 71, holding up a laminated newspaper article from 1977, tainted yellow with time.
One startling picture showed a sprawling lakebed that looked as dry as the Mojave desert.
Bob Braz, owner of The Fishen Hole bait and tackle shop in City of Lake Shasta, Calif., on Feb. 15, 2023, displays an old photograph depicting the extent of the 1976-77 drought that crippled much of Shasta Lake. (Allan Stein/The Epoch Times)
“The thing that made it so bad was you didn’t have any boat launches. You couldn’t launch your boat,” Braz said. “And when the [water] level is down, it’s hard on the elderly and the disabled….