Fish Hatchery, Grand Lake Stream, ca. 1925
Item 87958 info
Penobscot Marine Museum
The excellent water quality of Grand Lake has made it a prime location for hatching land-locked salmon for generations. Before the state established fish hatcheries, some private fishing clubs propagated their own fish.
Among these were the Dobsis Club between Dobsis Lake and Grand Lake, the Commodore Club at Hartland, Parmacheene Club, and the Megantic Club. They stripped, hatched, fed and distributed fry in public waters without expense to the state.
In 1868 the Maine and Massachusetts Commissioners of Fisheries began collecting eggs and hatching them in a spring at Grand Lake Stream. In 1871 they built the first hatchery building, a log structure, over a spring in Billy Brown Brook.
Later the hatchery was located along the stream near the mouth of Billy Brown Brook. A report from 1877 states that 2,159,000 eggs were reported to have been obtained, with 470,000 hatched for Grand Lake and the rest shipped out that year.
In 1878 the hatchery was torn down. Its next location was in "the Cove" (Forbes Cove) near the dam. It then relocated to its present site along the stream at the center of town.
From 1888-1892 Charles G. Atkins was superintendent of the Craig Brook Station and Schoodic Station at Grand Lake Stream. The buildings evolved and changed over time.
This view shows the state fish hatchery in the 1920s. Today Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife continues to operate a major hatchery on the site.
The white building behind the hatchery is the store once owned by Bob Sutherland, an early merchant in Grand Lake Stream.
Item 14 of 14
