Tennessee’s Erwin National Fish Hatchery (1897) and Georgia’s Warm Springs National Fish Hatchery (1899) are two of the Service’s oldest active fish culture facilities. For more than 100 years both hatcheries have, among other things, stocked tons of live fish in the nation’s rivers and streams.

Of the 66 hatcheries nationwide the Service still manages, only Craig Brook in Maine, (formerly Penobscot hatchery, established in 1879), Neosho in Missouri (1888), and Leadville in Colorado (1889), have been in operation longer than Erwin and Warm Springs.

Erwin: Historic Facility, Modern Techniques In August 1894, Congress passed legislation to fund a federal fish hatchery in Tennessee. After considering a number of sites in the state, U.S. Fish Commissioner Spencer Baird selected a site near Erwin in northeastern Tennessee and ordered excavation of ponds, installation of water supply lines, and construction of outbuildings and a hatchery manager’s residence. The hatchery was established in 1897 with an initial purchase of 10.83 acres at a cost of $1,025.

Fish culture techniques have changed radically over the years and Erwin NFH has undergone renovation a number of times since its construction. The original ponds have given way to a modern raceway system, replete with an aerator building and a liquid oxygen supplementation unit.

Erwin now functions as an integral part of the Service’s National Broodstock Program. The Service ships more than 13 million disease-free, eyed eggs from four strains of rainbow trout to federal, state and tribal hatcheries each year in support of scientifically sound fishery management programs in which there is a federal interest. Erwin is also involved in broodstock culture technology, cooperative ventures with other agencies and public outreach.

The hatchery’s annual visitation exceeds 40,000. According to Hatchery Manager Jack Jones, the facility may, along with several other local attractions, become the focal point of a new “eco-tourism” market for Tennessee’s Unicoi County, which features many environmental and educational travel experiences.

Warm Springs: Home of a Hatchery... and a President Another old-timer in the Southeast, Warm Springs NFH came into existence as a result of 1898 legislation authorizing the establishment of a “fish cultural station” in Meriwether County, Georgia. The small community of Warm Springs, 65 miles southwest of Atlanta, was called Bullochville before its incorporation in 1924.

In 1899, brothers Cyprian and Benjamin Bulloch and their cousin Sarah J. Bussey, owners of a 1,500-acre plantation in Meriwether County, donated 16 acres of land to the Fish Commission upon which to construct a fish hatchery. This acreage included three natural springs to supply water for hatchery operations. From these springs, water flowed out of the ground at a constant temperature of 62.6 degrees Fahrenheit.

Another spring, on adjacent property less than a mile away, is considered an oddity of nature. This spring, named Warm Spring, produces water year-round at a constant temperature of 88 degrees Fahrenheit.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt first gave national recognition to the community of Warm Springs when he visited these naturally heated springs as treatment for his polio-related paralysis. Roosevelt was so enchanted with the area that he built the only home he ever owned—a modest, six room cottage called the Little White House.

It served as a relaxing, comfortable haven for him during his regular visits to Warm Springs, where he is believed to have developed his New Deal policies.

It was here that FDR died on April 12, 1945, while posing for the “Unfinished Portrait” still on exhibit at the Little White House.

Co-located with the hatchery is the Warm Springs Fish Health Center, established in 1989, and a fish technology center, opened in 1993. The three facilities are incorporated into the Warm Springs Regional Fisheries Center.

Diana Hawkins, External Affairs, Atlanta, Georgia