Crystal Lake Fish Hatchery
Crystal Lake Fish Hatchery is a fish hatchery run by the California Department of Fish and Game, located in Cassel, California. Background In 1885, the California Fish Commission built a salmon hatchery on Hat Creek, which flows into the Pit River. The original hatchery was 100' long, 46' wide, and could raise 10 million fertilized eggs. Unfortunately, as time went on, the salmon returns dwindled and the hatchery had to shut down. In 1915 the hatchery was set to reopen with eggs from another facility, but Mount Lassen erupted that year, and the ash and silt poisoned the water, causing the facility to be abandoned completely. Burney Creek Hatchery was built by PG&E in lieu of installing a fish ladder over Dam 3 on the Pit River. It ran from 1927 to 1949, when the water supply in Burney Creek dried up and the hatchery had fallen into disrepair. Most of the operations were moved to Baum Lake after that, and Crystal Lake Hatchery was opened in 1947, with 24 raceway ponds. The first year, there was a parasite outbreak, which was fixed by changing the water supply from Crystal Lake to Rock Creek, which was parasite free. The hatchery