The Roxbury Fish Hatchery

We understand visitors are welcome to the Roxbury Fish Culture Station or Roxbury Fish Hatchery. Open seven days a week, they are happy to give tours and have picnic tables available for visitors. They have also provided feeders so folks can throw feed to the fish. Please see below or visit for more information and see a bit of Vermont history, alive and well.

The Roxbury Fish Culture Station, also known as the Roxbury Fish Hatchery, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The hatchery's story begins back in 1891,  making it the oldest of the fish farms in Vermont. During 1891, the Vermont State Legislature appropriated $2400 to the state Fish and Game Commission to build the hatch house. The land  was donated to the state and was chosen for its two springs that feed the ponds. Brook water, piped down from Flint Brook, and well water is used so the entire hatchery is flow through, requiring little or no electrical aid. The water temperature rarely varies from 48 degrees Fahrenheit year round. Spring water and brook water are mixed to keep the pools from freezing in the winter and cool and healthy in the summer.

During 1891,  one thousand brood stock of mixed salmon and trout species were placed in ponds in front of the hatch house. The hatchery produced a total of 553,500 fry or young fish to be planted by state game wardens in 1892. By 1896, the hatch house was expanded for more production. Numerous outbuildings were added over the years. Many types of trout, salmon and sturgeon have been raised here over the years. Listed as the only disease free hatchery in the state, they are proud to raise the state fish, the brook trout. Additionally, they hold some Atlantic Salmon brood stock, used for the Connecticut River Restoration Program. According to Wehnke, "We are still doing things here pretty much the same way as it was done way back then."

--Ross Wehnke, Fish Culture Technician

Source:  Information provided by the Department of Fish and Wildlife to the National Historical Society. Submitted by: Ross Wehnke, Fish Culturist at Roxbury Hatchery, Jan 2000.