220 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 



CALIFORNU. 

 HISTORY. 



The first fish-cultural station on the Pacific coast was located on 

 McCloud River, a stream of the Sierra Nevada Mountains emptying 

 into Pit River, a tributary to the Sacramento, 323 miles nearly due 

 north of San Francisco. The site on the west bank of the river, 

 about 3 miles above the mouth, was chosen after investigation of a 

 number of places on the Sacramento, by Livingston Stone, one of 

 America's pioneer fish culturists, and the station was named Baird, 

 in honor of the then Commissioner of Fisheries, Prof. Spencer F. 

 Baird. Although the season had nearly passed when the station 

 was sufficiently advanced to handle eggs, 50,000 eggs were secured, 

 and while 20,000 were lost, owing to the excessive heat, the remaining 

 30,000 were shipped east, all of which were eventually lost but 7,000 

 fry. which were planted in the Susquehanna River, in Pennsylvania. 



The main object of the hatchery the first few years was to secure 

 eggs to sliip to the East for the purpose of introducing Pacific salmon 

 in the waters of that section. The commission early made an agree- 

 ment with the State of California, however, under which the latter 

 at first paid part of the expense, and the commission hatched and 

 planted a portion of the take in the McCloud River. Later, part of 

 the eggs were turned over to the State, which hatched and planted 

 the salmon in local waters. 



In 1881 the station buildings were washed away in a freshet, but 

 were immediately rebuilt. From 1884 to 1887, both inclusive, all 

 operations were suspended. 



In 1889 a hatchery was established at Fort Gaston, on the Army 

 reservation in the Hoopa Indian Reservation in Humboldt County, 

 but it was not put into operation until 1890. As the reservation 

 was abolished on July 1, 1892, the commission took complete charge 

 of the plant, and in 1898 established a tributary station on Redwood 

 Creek. The same year Korbel station was established about one- 

 half mile above Korbel, on Mad River, in Humboldt County. Owing 

 to the lack of money this station was closed in the fiscal year 1896, 

 but was reopened during the fiscal year 1897. 



That same year the commission erected, on ground owned by the 

 State, a hatchery at Battle Creek, in Tehama County, and also took 

 charge of and operated the hatchery erected at this place by the 

 State fish commission the previous year. Under the terms of an 

 agreement the commission was to deliver to the State as many eyed 

 spawn as the latter could hatch at Sisson, its own station. 



Owing to their inaccessibility, the Fort Gaston hatchery and its 

 substations were abandoned in 1898. The same year an experi- 

 mental station was established at Olema, Bear Valley, in Marin 

 County, whence eggs were transferred from Baird station, hatched 

 out here, and planted in Olema Creek in order to see if they could 

 not be domesticated here, where they had not been found pre- 

 viously. 



During the fiscal jear 1902 a substation was established on Mill 

 Creek, a stream which has its source in the foothills of the Sierra 

 Mountains, in the northeastern part of Tehama County, and empties 

 into the Sacramento River from the east about a mile above the 

 town of Tehama. The eggs are retained here until eyed and then 

 shipped to other hatcheries. 



