June 2021 - 15

Warden Gustave Schnitger oversaw
construction of the Sundance hatchery. He
arrived there on April 26, 1895, and all went
well initially. The hatchery location, a halfmile
from town on Sundance Creek, was
secured after the donation of land, water rights
and county road right-of-way easement by
local resident B.V. Sanford. Sanford was given
a $250 contract to construct the building.
Other local residents received additional
contracts for construction of ditches, pipes
and four redwood troughs that would
house fish once the facility was operational.
However, by the time Schnitger returned
to Laramie, the challenges facing the new
hatchery were apparent.
" It is now in working order, but there are
no funds left for operating it, " he wrote in the
1895 annual fish commissioner's report. " It
took all this money to put up the building,
and there is not one cent of this fund left. "
" It is now in working order,
but there are no funds left
for operating it. " - Gustave
Schnitger
The Sundance hatchery received another
$1,000 from the 1897 legislature, but it
was unavailable until that April. In the
meantime, fish from the Sheridan hatchery
were stocked in Crook and surrounding
counties' waters. This job was given to S.E.
Land, superintendent at the Sheridan Branch
Hatchery. He excelled at moving wild-caught
fish to hatcheries to serve as brood stock and
at moving fish fry between hatcheries, thanks
to an invention of his own making. In 1896
he received a World's Fair prize for his Square
Refrigerator Transportation Fish Can. The
invention featured a square can encased in
a wooden jacket and a tray for ice that kept
water cool while transporting fish, which
increased survival rates.
By 1898 Schnitger reported the Sundance
hatchery was allocated 100,000 brook trout
eggs for rearing annually. Three years later, it
received double that.
But funding for the hatchery was always
precarious with each legislative budget session,
and local newspapers predicted the demise of
the hatchery.
The Sundance hatchery building cost $250, and local residents received contracts for other construction work around the building.
(Photo courtesy of the University of Wyoming, American Heritage Center, Samuel H. Knight Collection, Accession Number 400044, Box 82)
" It is probable the Sundance fish hatchery
will not be operated this year, owing to a lack
of funds, " wrote the Crook County Monitor
in January 1903.
In 1905 there was opposition in the
Wyoming Legislature to keep the hatchery
open, but with strong support from locallyelected
officials, the hatchery remained
in operation and received its largest
appropriation of fish - $2,500 - in 1907.
But in 1908, conditions at the hatchery
were rumored to have deteriorated and
Early transports of young fish were often done with the use of
the Square Refrigerator Transportation Fish Can, developed by
Sheridan Branch Hatchery Superintendent S.E. Land. It could
hold ice and keep water cool, thereby increasing survival of
fish during transport. (WGFD photo)
county officials made a surprise visit on April
9. Rather than the 300,000 young fish the
delegation expected to find, an article two
years later by the Crook County Monitor,
still lamenting the loss of the hatchery, said
the group found not enough live fish " to
wad a shotgun. " The hatchery was overseen
by Sheridan Hatchery Superintendent
Charles Morgareidge's son Ben, who local
newspapers later accused of drunkenness and
only tending to the hatchery a couple times
a week instead of daily.
The hatchery closed for the rest of the year
and in its 1909 session, the state legislature
appropriated no funds for the Sundance
hatchery. Charles Morgareidge was instructed
to dispose of the Sundance property and
salvage equipment for transfer to a relocated
hatchery near Piney Creek in Story.
The new Story hatchery, built in the
summer of 1909, increased production from
the already-impressive two million eggs it
was generating at the former location on
Wolf Creek in the Bighorn Mountains. Fish
raised from these eggs were distributed to
waters throughout the northeast corner of
the state for stocking, an arrangement that
continues today. Five to six million eggs are
spawned annually at Story Hatchery and then
transferred to other facilities for hatching
and rearing.
- Christina Schmidt is the Game and Fish public
information specialist in the Sheridan region. She is
a regular contributor to Wyoming Wildlife.
Wyoming Wildlife | 15

June 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of June 2021