The Terminus Dam was completed in 1962, but it’s history goes way back. In the 20s, that’s 1920s, California was looking into damming up rivers for irrigation purposes and flood control. In 1938 there was a devastating flood in Tulare County. John Steinbeck, the author, was actually present in Tulare County at the time, and it’s said that he inserted his experience and wrote about it in the final chapter of his classic novel “The Grapes of Wrath.” Well, whether or not that’s true, the flood control act of 1944 did authorize several dams to be built, the Terminus Dam being one of them.