The Lake Fish Hatchery Historic District comprises nine buildings built between 1930 and 1932 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the

National Park Service Rustic National Park Service rustic – sometimes colloquially called Parkitecture – is a style of architecture that developed in the early and middle 20th century in the United States National Park Service (NPS) through its efforts to create building ...

style. The buildings exhibit a consistency of style and construction, with exposed gable trusses and oversized paired logs at the corners, all with brown paint.Kaiser, Harvey (1997). "Landmarks in the Landscape", San Francisco: Chronicle Books , p. 147 The district is located on the shore of

Yellowstone lake Yellowstone Lake is the largest body of water in Wyoming and the largest in Yellowstone National Park. The lake is above sea level and covers with of shoreline. While the average depth of the lake is , its greatest depth is at least . Yellowst ...

near the

Lake Hotel The Lake Hotel, also known as Lake Yellowstone Hotel is one of a series of hotels built to accommodate visitors to Yellowstone National Park in the late 19th and early 20th century. Built in 1891, it is the oldest operating hotel in the park. ...

The hatchery was established to provide

Yellowstone cutthroat trout The Yellowstone cutthroat trout (''Oncorhynchus virginalis bouvieri'') is a subspecies of Rocky Mountain cutthroat trout (''Oncorhynchus virginalis''). It is a freshwater fish in the salmon family (family Salmonidae). Native only to a few U.S. ...

eggs for state and federal hatcheries outside Yellowstone.

History

By the early 20th century, a number of hatcheries were established in the park by the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries including hatcheries at

Yellowstone Lake Yellowstone Lake is the largest body of water in Wyoming and the largest in Yellowstone National Park. The lake is above sea level and covers with of shoreline. While the average depth of the lake is , its greatest depth is at least . Yellowst ...

and Soda Butte Creek. The current Lake Fish Hatchery replaced an earlier hatchery at Lake. These hatcheries not only produced stocks for the park, but also took advantage of the great spawning stock of Yellowstone cutthroat trout to supply eggs to hatcheries around the U.S. Between 1901 and 1953, 818 million trout eggs were exported from the park to hatcheries throughout the U.S. The hatcheries and stocking operations had both positive and negative impacts on the quality of angling in Yellowstone National Park in the first half of the 20th century. Many native populations were displaced by non-natives, but there was quality

brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing and painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors Orange (colour), orange and black. In the ...

and

rainbow trout The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributary, tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in North America and Asia. The steelhead (sometimes called steelhead trout) is an Fish migration#Classification, ...

fishing in the Firehole,

Madison Madison may refer to: People * Madison (name), a given name and a surname * James Madison (1751–1836), fourth president of the United States * Madison (footballer), Brazilian footballer Places in the United States Populated places * Madi ...

and

Gibbon River The Gibbon River flows east of the Continental Divide in Yellowstone National Park, in northwestern Wyoming, the Northwestern United States. Along with the Firehole River, it is a major tributary of the Madison River, which itself is a tributary ...

s. Ultimately stocking and hatchery operations negatively impacted Yellowstone cutthroat,

westslope cutthroat trout The Westslope cutthroat trout (''Oncorhynchus lewisi'')Page, Lawrence M.; Bemis, Katherine E.; Espinosa-Pérez, Héctor S.; Findley, Lloyd T.; Gilbert, Carter R.; Hartel, Karsten E.; Lea, Robert N.; Mandrak, Nicholas E.; Neighbors, Margaret A. ( ...

and

Arctic grayling The Arctic grayling (''Thymallus arcticus'') is a species of freshwater fish in the salmon family Salmonidae. ''T. arcticus'' is widespread throughout the Arctic and Pacific drainages in Canada, Alaska, and Siberia, as well as the upper Missou ...

populations in the park. In 1953 the National Park Service began closing the hatcheries and stopping stocking operations. The last fish stocked for the benefit of anglers was in 1955 after some 310 million fish had been released in park waters since 1889. The last hatchery was closed in 1957.

Description

The chief building of the district is Building 725, the South District Office for the park and the former Fish and Wildlife Service messhall. The building was built in 1935 using a "logs out" technique of construction, in which the log frame is exposed on the outside and the sheathing is set in, giving the interior a smooth wall finish. Building 726 was the hatchery itself, built in a similar style about 1930 and transferred to the Park Service in 1959. The one story building encloses about . An arched log truss is a prominent feature of the end elevation, together with a rubblestone chimney. The hatchery building was designed to accommodate park visitors, with an aquarium space with glazed panels to allow visitors to view the fish at tank level, and a balcony above the hatching troughs. Building 729 was an office and summer residence for the Fish and Wildlife Service's hatchery director. Built in 1932, the one story building matches its neighbors, in an L-shaped plan. Buildings 730 and 731 are smaller residences, built about 1931. Building 732, a garage, was built in 1930 with six bays. Building 733 was a FWS bunkhouse, built in 1930 with about . Building 735, a wash house, and 737, an oil house, complete the ensemble. Other facilities built at about the same time included boathouses, a dock, and rearing ponds, which have not survived.Lake Fish Hatchery Historic Structure Report, p. 10 The district was originally under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, but with the cessation of hatchery operations, it is now owned by the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...

. The hatchery messhall became the office for the southern district of the park. The former bunkhouse also became Park Service offices. The Lake Hatchery was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

on June 25, 1985

References

External links

Lake Fish Hatchery
Yellowstone National Park website
Lake Fish Hatchery Historic District
at the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office {{Wyoming Government buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Wyoming National Park Service rustic in Wyoming Fish hatcheries in the United States Historic American Buildings Survey in Wyoming Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Wyoming Agricultural buildings and structures in Wyoming National Register of Historic Places in Teton County, Wyoming National Register of Historic Places in Yellowstone National Park 1932 establishments in Wyoming Log buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Wyoming Buildings and structures in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming

History

Description

See also

References

External links