Fish Hatchery & Museum

Off highway 58, just outside of Oakridge, OR there is a gem of a learning experience for kiddos and adults alike. Entry is free!

Immediately after entering the park, you will notice fish ponds on the right with live 8 foot long sturgeon, and a couple hundred ripe rainbow trout. Kids will enjoy putting a quarter in the dispensing candy machine for a handful of fish food to toss in along the railed catwalk. Watch as the fish swarm and charge over each other for a morsel in this man-made fight to survive.

Further down the way, there are caged pheasants and other game birds on display. Then there are rows and rows of pools with young growing fry leaping at the water flow pipes --as they would have to do in the wild-- to get to an imaginary higher part of the imaginary river where perhaps it's less crowded.

The crown event is at the very back, tucked between two nondescript buildings, through a marked gate. Large, adult salmon ready to spawn for viewing. You stand atop a platform some 15 feet above a stream where prize-winning quality fish are grouped in a school against a barrier. If you've never seen live, full grown salmon, like me, you would be both awed and hungry at the sight. How I wished poles were allowed.

Fish hatcheries are a missed opportunity for most, because they're assumed to be boring or unwelcoming to the public. Quite the opposite is true on both accounts. Fish hatcheries are often designed to be educational and attractive for patrons of any age.

What is the role of a hatchery? 

Every year fisherman hunt inland bodies of water for food and prizes in the form of salmon, trout, bass, and more. Hatcheries ensure their is a supply. Wild caught fish are allowable only in certain waters, at certain times. Hatcheries stock lakes, streams, and rivers with farm raised adolescent fish.

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Fishermen may target waters they know the hatcheries recently stocked to get first dip in the riches.

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Stocked fish will disperse, to some extent, down river to other tributaries. They may make their way to the ocean, if they are a migratory species, and will end up back at the place they were dropped at. In the case of the spawning salmon this hatchery had on display, the fish return to the place they were hatched, meaning they return to the hatchery's closed stream by way of a series of steps and pipes. When the time to spawn has arrived, the females are harvested for their eggs to start a new cycle of incubation in the hatchery pools.

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Note: Salmon die anyway when they spawn. They return to their birth place and lay their eggs before they deteriorate completely. You may see their decaying carcasses along inland rivers during their spawning season (variable for each species). 

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In my area, fishermen are only allowed to keep hatchery raised trout, distinguished from wild trout by the clipped adipose (rear dorsal) fin along the top of their spine. 

Without hatcheries, there would not be the plentiful number of fish available for humans and wild animals alike. Hatcheries help protect native, wild populations by creating enough game for fishermen to try for.

What did the kids enjoy?

Not only did the walking around in the heat tire them out, but they had a blast seeing so many fish close up. It's one thing to see a dead, frozen fish for sale in the supermarket, it's another to see them in the water, alive, and out in the (relative) wild. They couldn't get enough of seeing the fish leap and swarm at the food they dropped. It gave them a sense of control they can't get anywhere else. 

My son loved watching the prehistoric looking sturgeon at this particular hatchery. Four sturgeon are retained in the pools there, swimming along the bottom like menacing shadows of the deep. But because the pools only go down about 7 ft, patrons can see them very clearly from above. 

Museum

The onsite museum was also enjoyable. While the adults found competition in testing each other's knowledge of local wildlife...

...the kids were in awe by the still display of stuffed animal skins in simulated real-life environments. 

And the fish tank, of course, was popular for the littlest one.

 

Summary and Conclusion

This again, was all free to view and visit. The only expense was getting there and having a couple dollars of quarters on hand for fish food. There is a bathroom (rest area style), and various sitting areas (with benches) under shaded trees for a snack or picnic. Psst. This hatchery also had free (educationally oriented) mini golf in a large barn behind a koi pond. 😵

There are opportunities all around, if you're curious enough to take an adventure into the unknown. Parenting doesn't have to be blasé. Get out and be surprised. Have fun while you're at it!