Pic taken from Susquehanna, Pride of the Fish Commision
I was doing some research on a tip that smallmouth bass were one time stocked in a local stream. In my search I ran across this article. It goes over the history of stocking fish via train. I was surprised to find out fish were stocked coast to coast as early as the late 1800's. The technology as the trains progressed is very intriguing.
"By the early 1920s, the fish cars had accumulated an impressive record. A 1923 report indicated that, over the previous 20 years, the output of the various hatchery activities amounted to 72,281,380,861 fish which were distributed by fish cars traveling 2,029,416 miles and detached messengers 8,104,799 miles."
~The Fish Car Era of the National Fish Hatchery System
~The Fish Car Era of the National Fish Hatchery System
The article is very interesting. One of my favorite parts is about hiring a crew of people to aerate the water by hand as a shipment of striped bass traveled across the country.
