CALIFORNIA PISH AND GAME. 73 



LAKE TAHOE HATCHERY. 



In the spring of 1889 Superintendent Woodbury, acting under 

 instructions from the Board of Fish Commissioners, decided to locate 

 a permanent hatchery on Lake Tahoe. The state had been carrying on 

 hatchery operations under the direction of Mr. I. C. Frazier, in a rented 

 building that was not properly equipped to do good work. Each season 

 a few hundred thousand eggs had been taken from the black-spotted 

 trout of Lake Tahoe and shipped to the Shebley Hatchery in Nevada 

 County, and when the fry were hatched they were shipped back to the 

 Truckee and Tahoe region and distributed. 



After a study of conditions the hatchery was located near Tahoe City, 

 at the north end of the lake. The water supply was furnished from 

 springs rising on the land used as a hatchery site. Thirteen acres were 

 first rented, but later purchased so as to secure all the available water 

 to be had near the site. At this hatchery millions of black-spotted trout 

 were annually reared until 1916. 



During the season 1891 the Tahoe Hatchery, as well as the other 

 hatcheries, was not operated, owing to dissension among members of 

 the board. Three private hatcheries, located at Del Monte, Glen Ellen 

 and Alma, were supervised by the state for a few years, but the result- 

 ing hatch was negligible. In 1892 the Sisson Hatchery was reopened 

 but the Tahoe Hatchery was not reopened until 1894, when Mr. E. W. 

 Hunt was appointed superintendent. The work of propagating the 

 black-spotted trout of Lake Tahoe was systematically taken up by Mr. 

 Hunt, and the increased number of fish in the Tahoe region is evidence 

 of his energetic and intelligent work. The increase of trout in Lake 

 Tahoe, like the increase of salmon in the Sacramento River, is well 

 demonstrated by the work of the egg-collecting stations. In 1890 the 

 commission seined on all the available places in the lake where it was 

 thought spawning fish could be taken, besides operating traps in three 

 of the best creeks flowing into the lake, and only 873,000 eggs were 

 procured. In 1910, 6,000,000 were taken at the Taylor Creek egg- 

 collecting station alone. 



THE NEW LAKE TAHOE HATCHERY. 



By 1916 it had become more and more evident that the supply of 

 water at the old site of the Tahoe Hatchery was entirely inadequate. 

 Consequently, during the fall of 1917, a survey was made of all the 

 available and suitable streams flowing into Lake Tahoe, and after a 

 careful examination a site was selected at Walker Springs, one mile 

 north of the pr&sent site, on the state highway. The AValker Springs 

 run, during the minimum flow, 30 inches of water, and during the 

 maximum flow a couple of hundred inches; and this during the season 

 of greatest hatchery activity. Therefore the state secured a most desir- 

 able site to carry on hatchery work, and the only suitable water for 

 hatchery purposes in the Tahoe Basin proper. The streams that have 

 their sources in the mountain range surrounding Lake Tahoe carry too 

 much detritus and are too roily during the time the snow is melting. 

 After purchasing the property, plans were made by the state architect 

 for a modern stone hatchery with four times the capacity of the old 



