220 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 
CALIFORNIA. 
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 eae 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 ship 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 1893 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 Coit 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 year 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. 
