66 Fish, Fishing and Fisheries of Pennsylvania. 



CHAPTER Xn. 



History of the State Fisheeies on Lake Erie. 



Although Pennsylvania has but about forty-five miles of frontage on 

 Lake Erie, its interests in the fisheries of these waters are considerable, 

 the city of Erie, a flourishing^ town on this great water way, doing the 

 bulk of the trade. The following history of the state fisheries on Lake 

 Erie is contributed by Col. John Fleeharty, of Erie : 



Ever since the appearance of the white man on the shore of Lake 

 Erie it has been noted for the quantity, variety and fine quality of its 

 fish. Long before the advent of the whites the Indian was aware 

 and appreciated this fact, and fish in connection with game was his 

 whole food supply. In addition to the fish in the lake, all of the small 

 streams emptying into it abounded with brook trout and other species 

 of small fish. And it is within the memory of many persons living when 

 brook trout abounded within the present limits of the city of Erie. The 

 writer when a boy has taken them within half a mile of the Union depot 

 in a small stream coming down from the ridge, some place about Liberty 

 street, and emptying into Mill creek in the neighborhood of Sixteenth 

 and State streets. Big Cascade creek also aboimded with them, and 

 the taking of them was a source of great pleasure to many a disciple of 

 Walton still living. And it is a source of unlimited regret to those 

 ardent sportsmen that those days have gone forever. Upper Mill creek, 

 Walnut creek and Trout run were noted for their fine fishing. lu fact, 

 without particularizing, all of the streams in Erie county were prolific 

 in fish, and all of them contained many brook trout. 



When the pioneers located on Presque Isle, in 1795, they had to 

 resort to fishing in their log canoes from the lake and bay for the pur- 

 pose of adding to their food supply, and the soldiers in the forts east of 

 Mill creek laid in a large supply each season for their own use. Log 

 canoes for fishing purposes were as much a necessity to the early settlers 

 along the lake as log cabins to shelter their families, and each went 

 fishing as his wants required. 



In 1796, some twentyor thirty Indian families belonging to the Seneca 

 tribe, resided at the head of the bay now known as "the Head," or 

 Massassauga Point. After the advent of the white man, they fished 

 and sold their catch to the whites, and were the first fishermen on the 

 lake in northwest Pennsylvania. The beach was then much larger than 

 it is to-day, and a heavy forest covered the low lands nearest the shore. 

 But they gradually disappeared. This was the last Indian village in 

 Erie county. 



