Lake Tulare was once the largest body of water this side of the Mississippi. The outcrop west of coordinates 21, 22 is where Las Tres Piedras is located, Cantua Creek fed into it, as did Kings River from the east. It’s near impossible to imagine what the Valley was like before these waterways were engineered for irrigation, the lake plays a significant role in the story of Murrieta, his horse droving, and the path down the spine of the Diable Ridge (La Vereda del Monte). It is a ‘halfway’ point, where the final herd was gathered before the long haul to Rancho La Berruga, in Sonora, Mexico. A good horse was hard to find in Sonora, and the California Mustang was one of the sturdiest breeds on the planet. According to field interviews conducted by Latta, Murrieta made way more money running horses than thieving gold, certainly more than panning for it.