Commemoration

On this site in 1866 Samuel Wilmot began to experiment with the artificial breeding of salmon. His success led the federal government in 1868 to enlarge Wilmot's project into Ontario's first full scale fish hatchery, one of the earliest in North America. The station and rearing ponds, built to restore Ontario's declining salmon fisheries, reached its maximum production in 1876 when 1,500,000 eggs were hatched. By this time, hatcheries were in operation in Quebec, Ontario and the Maritimes, under Wilmot's supervision. In 1876 he was appointed federal Superintendent of Fish Breeding Establishments. The Newcastle Hatchery, which had established a pattern for fish culture in many parts of the world, ceased operation in 1914.