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By Paul Pittman [Editor’s Note: This is a historical perspective of the old Waynesville Hatchery, which has been converted into offices and a depot for the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission.] RALEIGH, N.C. (April 26, 2005) – During my 26-year career with the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, I have met many people who have told tales of going to the fish hatchery at Balsam Gap as children and as adults. Their stories got me interested in the history of the site. The “rearing station” as it was called years ago was one of several constructed during the 1920s and 1930s. Other stations were Arrowhead Glade at Franklin and those at Roaring Gap, Pineola and Marion.
The Fisheries Commission Board, precursor to the Wildlife Commission, purchased the 12-acre site from J.R. Morgan and his wife in 1919 for $1,200. The board built the hatchery in the 1920s, naming it the Morrison Hatchery. The name came from the governor of North Carolina, Cameron Morrison, who served from 1921 through 1924. The original water source was several springs located on the old Haight farm. In the 1930s, the hatchery’s concrete raceways and round ponds as well as the nearly mile of water lines were constructed by the Works Projects Administration. The water supply was dug by hand and was gravity-fed from Winchester Creek with some of the lines being as much as 12 feet deep. Gordon Smathers worked at the hatchery in 1932 and 1933 for 15 cents an hour. Smathers’ brother, Gene, worked at Arrowhead Glade before becoming the first superintendent of the Fayetteville Hatchery where he finished his career. Gordon Smathers has lived in the vicinity of the Balsam hatchery his entire life, except for a stint in the service. In the beginning, the site was as much a zoo as a hatchery, he recalled. Animals kept on the hatchery grounds included two monkeys named Herbert and Joe, a mountain lion, deer, black bear, prairie dogs and snakes. The black bear was the first known bear in the area to have a cub in captivity, Smathers said. Before any of the other attractions of Maggie Valley and Cherokee were created, many folks enjoyed trips to the hatchery on Sunday afternoons and have fond memories of the hatchery and its occupants. Jeanie Rector of Clyde remembers coming to the hatchery as a child in the 1930s to look at the animals. One Easter, she was walking the railroad tracks from her grandfather’s house in nearby Saunooke. She was wearing her Easter dress and was looking at the bear when it reared up on the cage and threw mud all over her dress! David McClure, a local outdoor equipment shop owner, remembers how cold the hatchery waters were after falling in one of the raceways as a child. Fifteen years ago, an elderly gentleman stopped in and was looking around the grounds, he commented that he helped plant the several 200-foot tall Norway spruce and hemlock that now watch over the site. Many a youngster (and a grownup
or two) could not resist trying to grapple one of the slick trout in
the raceways. Some had ingenious ways of luring
the fish in. One enterprising boy had a fish line rigged inside his pants
running down and out the bottom of his pants leg. Baited with a red worm,
he would put his foot up on the raceway, dangle his lure in the water
and pull a fat rainbow up his britches leg! This worked fine until a
hatchery worker noticed the boy’s leg twitching uncontrollably. The hatchery’s first superintendent was Leo Reiger; his son Leo Jr. followed him. Johnny Byrd came on board in 1963, with Jerry Hodge managing the hatchery until its closing in 1983. The Waynesville Hatchery ceased operation as a hatchery in 1983 when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service turned over operation of the Pisgah hatchery to the state. Today, the site is home to offices and depot for Inland Fisheries, Wildlife Management, Engineering Services and the Enforcement divisions. Paul Pittman is a fisheries technician for the Wildlife Commission’s Division of Inland Fisheries. |
