TALES OF THE SAN JOAQUIN, A RIVER JOURNEY follows the San Joaquin River from its source in the Sierra Nevada Mountains to its eventual meeting with San Francisco Bay. Along the way we cross paths with a colorful group of people who know the river firsthand, a river called by many, "the hardest working river in America," and by others, "the most abused." Once the birthplace for hundreds of thousands of salmon, the San Joaquin now runs completely dry in two separate sections of the original river channel. This is the story of how this once mighty river was destroyed by water diversion and what the possibilities are for its eventual restoration.