ALEX.: You're Bill Evans?
EVANS: Yes.
ALEX.: What is your middle initial?
EVANS: Miles . . . it would be an M.
ALEX.: Uh huh . . . and ah . . . and when did you come to this Edray
Hatchery?
EVANS: August 1934.
ALEX.: August of '34 . . . well the program was probably just getting under
way at that time.
EVANS: Well it wasn't near all the stuff that's here now . . . I mean in '32
. . . I guess is when they started . . . that building up there was the only
building . . .
ALEX.: Uh huh.
EVANS: When I went to work here this building wasn't completed . . . that
building . . . nor that one . . . None of this stuff was out here . . .
ALEX.: Uh huh.
EVANS: And a lot of this work . . . they did with C. C. boy . . . all this
landscape . . . of course all the rest of it on the buildings was carpenters . .
. but the C. C. boys . . . W. C. C. camps . . . they built all these stone walls
all the way up . . . And that was the first . . . that was back in 1935 they
built these raceways . . .
ALEX.: I see.
EVANS: That what we had . . . the original design was for another building
like this . . .
ALEX.: Yes, sir.
EVANS: And ah . . . back in those days you didn't raise large fish like you
do now . . . 9, 10, 11 inches . . . it was all just small fish . . . then they
built those . . . then the next we built was that . . . the first 12 circulars
there . . . that was about . . . oh about 1939 probably . . . around '39 . . .
and then after . . . well just before W. W. II was over . . . what period would
that have been . . . '40 . . .?
ALEX.: 1945 . . . '44 or '45.
EVANS: They purchased this spring up above . . . from the Bank of Marlinton
. . . where I live . . . the upper unit we call it . . .
ALEX.: Yes, sir.
EVANS: Then we built all that up there . . . and those last 12 circular
pools down there . . . that's when we started in. . . when we built this we
really didn't raise large fish in it . . . just Fingerlings . . .
ALEX.: Yes, sir.
EVANS: That's all . . . you stocked out the Fingerlings . . . and then you'd
probably have them out by June and what you would do was maintenance on the
buildings and stuff like that . . . well I guess it was about '38 or '39 we
started raising adult fish for stocking . . . and it's increased ever since . .
. I mean . . . this year here we have put out . . . that's all four species . .
. that's brook, brown, golden rainbow, and regular rainbow . . . around 250,000
. . . 53 ton of 'em . . .
ALEX.: Uh huh . . . pretty good stocking year.
EVANS: Yeah.
ALEX.: Well the crew has grown over the years . . . hasn't it?
EVANS: Oh yeah . . . well a lot of this year is this youth program . . . we
always have them every summer.
ALEX.: Yes, sir.
EVANS: And ah . . . oh yeah the crew . . .
ALEX.: Were you the only person here or three or four of you in
say . . . what did you say '34 or '32 . . . '34?
EVANS: I went to work in '34. The hatchery up on the reservoir up there says
'32 . . . I wasn't even working out here . . . I can remember when I came out
here the first time . . . I really didn't know then I'd be out here the biggest
part of my life . . . by just looking around . . . then course that was under
Governor Connally . . . when we stated that . . . that's when 055 and that
plaque up there . . . the commissioners was on there . . . then after that . . .
when Krump got in that's when I went to work . . .
ALEX.: Uh huh.
EVANS: I guess that would be . . . the first director would be Major Shawhand . . . he was probably the first director . . . you know . . . I mean .
. . you know I just heard a lot about him . . . his father was the inventor of
this what they call the Fearno pail(?)* . . . that's what they used to haul fish
in . . . see.
ALEX.: I see.
EVANS: Aluminum . . . 5 gallon pail . . . of course at the time . . . like I
said they were all little fish . . . of course back then you didn't have the
fishing pressure(?)* that you have today . . . or have had let's say the last
ten or twelve years . . .
ALEX.: Now he is going to be honored . . . ah . . . or at least you are
going to have him for dinner . . . I overheard somewhere . . .
EVANS: No. I . . . they are having an environment meeting out here . . . oh
I don't know a lot of government officials . . . it is the 25th and 26th of June
. . . Dave Robinson sent me a memo and said they might stop in here and I
thought maybe if he was interested in that plaque . . . he could either have it
. . . or they could put it up here or whatever they wanted to do . . .
ALEX.: Yeah.
EVANS: . . . cause he is the one that started this hatchery . . . Fearno.
ALEX.: Yeah. Yeah. Well that's about . . . he would be more or less the
father you say of this operation.
EVANS: I'd say he was . . . of all . . . I'd say he would be the father of
all state fish hatcheries.
ALEX.: Uh huh.
EVANS: Of course this is not the oldest . . . now it's either Ridge or
Little Petersburg in Grant County.
ALEX.: Uh huh.
EVANS: Is the oldest . . . well it wouldn't be hatchery . . . it was a
rearing station then.
ALEX.: Yeah.
EVANS: This is really the biggest hatchery . . . I mean where the state owns
for hatching fish.
ALEX.: Uh huh.
EVANS: Now Spring Run is a rearing station . . . it has the largest poundage
put out but they don't hatch their eggs there . . . they get the Fingerlings and
start them out . . . it what you call a rearing station.
ALEX.: Yeah. How many men worked here let's say back in '34 . . . when . . .
EVANS: Well there were three of us.
ALEX.: Yeah. What's your summer crew now . . . what do you have a permanent
staff here . . . of something more than three now . . .
EVANS: Oh yes. Well there are eight of us.
ALEX.: There are eight now.
EVANS: Uh huh. Of course now the trucking is a big item right now . . I mean
like you start in January stocking . . . it keeps two and most of the time three
on the distribution trucks.
ALEX.: Uh huh. The disbursements from the State have grown in recent years
and I suppose it's the 3 dollar increase in . . .
EVANS: Trout stamps.
ALEX.: Trout stamps really helped the State. It's a much needed thing . . .
I fully support that . . . and ah . . . I hope it can continue to aid you in
this program because I think it is a valuable program . . .
EVANS: Oh yeah . . . our trout fishing is increasing every year . . . that
is trout fishing . . . and of course a lot of 'em . . . we have had this year
round season . . . open season . . . I think for about 10 years . . . and ah . .
. of course that changed our stocking procedures and everything else . . . used
to what you would do . . . you would start stocking about the 15th of March . .
.
ALEX.: Uh huh.
EVANS: And ah . . . it changed the whole thing . . . it's a lot better I
mean the way it is now . . . you get a lot better distribution on your fish . .
. and ah . . . it gives the trout fisherman a lot better chance for the trout
which he pays for with the trout stamp . . . but it's all a different ballgame
from what it was in '34 when I went to work . . . I mean . . . there is no
comparison . . .
ALEX.: What are some of the problems you have . . . or opportunities you
have for improvement today as you see them.
EVANS: You mean for improving now . . .In production?
ALEX.: In production or stocking.
EVANS: We have some problems with truck followers. Just like I say they're
paying the bills, why not let them have the fish. Now as far as production on
this hatchery—we actually raise more fish than we actually should to be on the
safe side all the time. When you get to crowding you run into trouble. For the
size and number of hatcheries we've got I think we've got one of the best trout
hatchery programs in the eastern part of the United States. There are bigger
ones in the Western states because that's where you've got all the big water.
You've got streams that flow 40, 50, 60,000 gallons a minute, where in West
Virginia you've got streams that flow 5,000 gallons a minute. You just don't
have the water. Now tourists and visitors . . . the number we have now it's
really a sight, but the people just come to see those large fish and visit the
hatchery.
ALEX.: That brings a lot of people into Pocahontas County.
EVANS: Yes it does, especially the trout fishing. You have more streams that
heads in Pocahontas than in any other county in West Virginia. All of that's
good trout water.
ALEX.: Several good trout streams then.
EVANS: Oh yes, the Williams River, the Cranberry . . .
ALEX.: Knapps Creek.
EVANS: Knapp's Creek is really a small mouth bass stream, but I talked the
technician we had into stockin' it. He said he didn't think it'd work. But we've
been stockin' it 26-27 years. Back then in the 40's we had two biologists in the
whole state. Woody Seaman and Bob Stevens. Woody Seaman, his office is in
Charleston and he's the head of Fish Warm Water and Cold Water. Bob Stevens,
he's supervisors of hatcheries. In the fish end of it that was all the
biologists we had. I don't know how many we've got now, but we've got a pile of
them.
ALEX.: They do a pretty good job.
EVANS: By getting this trout stamp money that turns more money loose on warm
water fish. Course Robinson he ramrods that, course he in on the trout too.
ALEX.: Bass?
EVANS: Bass muskie, channel cats stuff like that. But the trout hatcheries
was eating most of it up back when we had to depend on appropriations. But it's
big business.
ALEX.: I suppose you'll have a problem with people who follow that stocking
truck. Suppose some take more than their fair share?
EVANS: Oh there's not questions some of them do.
ALEX.: How are you going to control that?
EVANS: You can't do it. If you watched every stream to catch all the
violations . . . what a lot of them do, they don't follow the truck but they'll
watch where you're stockin--if they have campers. A lot of them catch more fish
than what they should. You'd have to have a conservation officer on the stream
24 hours a day to police it to stop the violations. We used to close a stream.
Like this Tea Creek. We closed it for two years and when we opened it, it had
done been fished out. We wasn't anything ahead by closin' it.
ALEX.: Are there still fish in these streams in even mid to late August
after the stocking program stops?
EVANS: You See, before hunting season we stock. So, the hunter can hunt in
the morning and fish in the evening. Then when the season opens, we stock again.
Then we stock again at the first of January. It costs a little more money the
way we're distributing our fish now, but after you figure out what the fish are
costing. I mean, you're not losing, you’re really. . . if you get the fish back
to the fisherman it pays off.
ALEX.: This has been a good hatchery over the years.
EVANS: Yes. It's not really what you call an ideal hatchery. An ideal hatchery
is where you have a constant flow of water-it doesn't get too high or low and
the temperature's about 56 degrees. This temperature fluctuates. It gets down
around 45 in the winter. That slows you down on your growth. It slows on your
small fish; it takes eggs longer to hatch. Then if you don't get rainfall you
get low water. It takes 2,000-15,000 gallons a minute to run this with all these
units. We have had it down as low as 400 gallons a minute. You can't feed
then because when they're eating they require oxygen out of the water and it's
not there.
ALEX.: Slows down the growth, you say.
EVANS: Yeah. You've got to feed two or three times every day. Course you
lose two or three feeds, you lose some growth--it'll take you two or three days
to pick that back up. You get a hatchery that's got a 56 degree temperature year
round you can grow a lot better fish. This is a hard hatchery to operate, they
way it's scattered out.
ALEX.: What about the circular feeding vats or pools? Are they really the
best?
EVANS: They're coming back to ponds. We've got a place down here--Leased
that's all earth ponds. We've got 11 earth ponds. We raise half of our
production down there with earth ponds. This here is a 1/2 million dollar
production and all that is, is earth ponds and the water brought out of the
creek. We get a water temperature that fluctuates 10 degrees. It goes up to 80
degrees but it cools down at night. If it didn't cool down they couldn't take
it.
ALEX.: Aren't the earth ponds as good for growth?
EVANS: In my opinion it's the best--it's more natural and you have less
disease in your fish. They're a little harder to treat if you have to treat.
It's just like that stuff I had on me-that Malofite Green(?)*. I use it to treat
the ick(?)*. That's about the only thing that ever bothers them down there.
ALEX.: Are there any other hatcheries in Pocahontas County?
EVANS: No.
ALEX.: The nearest hatchery would be at Elkins?
EVANS: Or at White Sulfur. It's a federal and it's one of the oldest hatcheries
in the United States. It doesn't look like it did 20 years ago because it's been
torn down and remodeled. It's a modern hatchery now. It's totally an egg station
now. I can't send my trucks in there unless they're disinfected. All they do is
send eggs to other government hatcheries. Course they stock out the brood fish. We get some of them. We've got an agreement
with the government. We get a lot of government fish. We stock the national
forest and it all comes out even if they stock state streams.
ALEX.: I appreciate the opportunity to talk with you this morning.
EVANS: It's a good business if people want to get into it commercially but
the question now is water. We put this system in under Barron. It was a pilot
program. They said it wouldn't work, course I changed the ponds around some and,
ah, it has worked. We had one bad year with ick(?)* before we started using
Malofite* Green. I subscribe to all these magazines and I seen that the Russians
were using the stuff --methlyn blue* they called it.
ALEX.: What is ick(?)*?
EVANS: It's the same thing tropical fish get; it's a parasite.
ALEX.: How do you spell it?
EVANS: Oh--it's got a longer name. Course you've also got dylordacules(?)*
____ that's a bad parasite. You've got to treat it with formalyn*. We're not
bothered by it in these earth ponds and malofite* green takes care of everything
else. Speaking of that we made that work, down there we grow half our poundage.
Commercial trout hatcheries are a good business. Ponds, restaurants, clubs buy
them.
ALEX.: Didn't we buy another spring under the Moore administration?
EVANS: Yeah and under Moore we started this Meade's Creek in Pendleton
County. It's operating but not in full production. Ran into cost problem with
inflation. Just like this fish food, you used to pay $8.50 a hundred, you're
paying $14.50 a hundred now.
ALEX.: There was a rumor that you had run out of food?
EVANS: No, we had a problem when the price jumped but they got the money for
us. We had plenty to operate on. They bought this place in Mercer County. We
always have tried to get something in the southern part of the state so we
wouldn't have to go so far. We got into Wayne--12 Pole, Mingo Laural Fork Lake.
The whole southern part of the state Boone County, Logan County, all of that.
They're limited because they bought it for hunting. There's a spring on it with
400-500 gallons a minute. Depends on what they do with it--you need different
amounts of water with ponds than if you were using raceways. They were in Elkins
one Boss Harvey Bell, they were there the other day lookin' it over.
ALEX.: How many acres here?
EVANS: Two and a half acres. It was bought off of three different people.
This used to be a swamp in here. It's been filled. We bought the spring and this
section off of Mr. A. C. (Acey) Barlow. Part of this hill was owned by Aldridges. There was two tracts. Up there on the hill where I live there are 28
acres. They bought this spring--it was in the 40's- for $4,500 and the 28 acres
of ground. That spring is worth $40,000 today. We have one on this hill too.
We've got a pipeline and it feeds those 12 down there. Some of our water we use
over several times. It's a sight. We just had one restroom up there--one toilet
for men and women. So I told my boss . . . we used to have a turbine there where
we've got the restrooms now and we used to feed meat all the time had a cooler
there. It was a mess in there and I said we've got to have some restrooms so we
built those about four years ago. We do a lot of our own work. This road has
never been hard topped since 19 and 38.
ALEX.: Appreciate opportunity to talk with you.
(SKIP)
EVANS: All our costs are higher. We put a 1,000 gallon of gas in --some of
our trucks take 85 gallons--it doesn't last anytime. It used to be a man could
go into the office and in two days do the paper work for a month. Now we have a
secretary and Luther White you met he's been with me 26 or 27 years. He's a
superintendent, too. Then there is McLaughlin(?)*, he's a superintendent. It
takes a secretary all the time in the office and he has to help too to do the
book work 'cause everything is right on paper. Our worksheets are on computer,
everything.
ALEX.: Been a lot of changes.
EVANS: It's all business anymore. Sitting on the street down there and there
was Frank Hill, a lawyer. He's the one that originated the 1 cent sales tax.
Frank Hill of Marlinton under the Democrats. He said, "Boy, do you want to go to
work for about six weeks at 30 cents an hour?" I said, "Yes." Cause you couldn't
get a job then. He said, "You go on out the to the fish hatchery and tell that
fellow I sent you out there." I've been here ever since. I've been runnin' it,
been superintendent for 28 years.
ALEX.: You're the oldest man in the Department of Natural Resources.
EVANS: In service.
ALEX.: In years of service.
(Break)*
ALEX.: You say once the fish is in it you can ship it anywhere in the world
as long as it stayed cool.
EVANS: Those run about 550 eggs to the ounce. That's the way we count them
in a graduated glass. This is how they look when they hatch out--sack fry.
ALEX.: They have a sack on the bottom of them.
EVANS: They live off that sack—depends on the water temperature-- they begin
to absorb that sack. Soon as they absorb that they'll come up to the top of the
water and start feeding. Then you have to feed them ten times a day to start
out. We have some cripples, twins, but they never live. Soon as they absorb that
sack up they die.
ALEX.: Tell me the story about this big brown trout mounted here on the
wall. It says: "Stolen from Edray Fish Hatchery. The theft was fined, the fish
mounted and here he is. His name is Henry, 1973."* I read about that somewhere.
Where did you raise that fish?
EVANS: Up on the dam. Boys cleaning the dam out, it was on a Friday evening
so I told them to just move them to the circular pool. Then on a Saturday
night, seems it was stolen. The boys didn't get it on a hook and line. They
caught it in a landing net and killed it with a hunting knife.
ALEX.: What is the length of that fish?
EVANS: Thirty. It tells you there--Better than the state record.
ALEX.: Thirty five and a half inches long and weights 17 pounds.
EVANS: That fish was nine years old.
ALEX.: Yeah, he was fined at $103 and he agreed to return the fish for
mounting. It cost him $75 for mounting.
(Break)*
EVANS: Where he got this was probably in the Elk River, somewhere up near
the mouth. When he gutted the fish there were three Brook Trout in it 8-9" long.
Put it in a pool where there were brook trout. When we got the messenger report
there hadn't been any Brook Trout stocked yet. We saw on the bank when he took
the scales off of it and we could match them up real easy. You can tell the age
of them under a microscope by the rings on them just like you do the age of
trees, far apart and close together, far apart and close together.
ALEX.: You had him essentially fingerprinted then.
EVANS: Well like all boys, he had to spread it around the school a little
bit. State police here, he was kind of mad about it. He got on the district
conservation officer about it; he was working on it. He confessed to it. They
brought him back over here and he went through the procedures of how he had done
it.
ALEX.: How old was he?
EVANS: Seventeen.
ALEX.: Seventeen. Michael Drost. Every fisherman has dreamed of catching a
fish that big.
EVANS: He held the state record for two days. They had that on the
news--even Paul Harvey had it on the news.
ALEX.: You mean the whole story, not just that he had the record.
EVANS: About the big trout. The kids down in Louisiana knew about it before
I said anything to them about it.
ALEX.: You have how many children?
EVANS: Four boys and a daughter.
ALEX.: They're all in Shrevesport, Louisiana, working in the oil business.
EVANS: They own their own companies. My boy's got one and my daughter's
husband's got one.
(Break)*
EVANS: Born 1913 in Marlinton. June 16, 1913. I'll be 63 years old.
(Break)*
End