The first thing you notice at Copco Lake is that there’s no lake here. Yet, in this woodsy Northern California community just miles from the Oregon border, wooden docks sit oddly in grassy backyards. Boats lie idle in dirt lots or on parked trailers. The occasional fishing pole or life vest is strewn about on a side lawn. These fixtures of boating, swimming and angling, no longer in use, serve as witness to the ghost of a reservoir that haunts this rural area. Recently, the community lost its signature Copco Lake when four hydroelectric dams were removed on the Klamath River. In what was celebrated as the largest dam-removal project in U.S. history, the reservoirs behind the dams emptied of water and the popular aquatic activities at Copco saw a quick death.