Kamas Hatchery

2722 E Mirror Lake Highway
Kamas, Utah 84036
(435) 783-4883

Location

The Kamas Hatchery is located three miles from Kamas, Utah, which is the gateway to the Uinta Mountains. To find the hatchery from I-80, go east to Highway 40, and Highway 40 to the Kamas Exit. Turn onto Highway 24B and follow to Kamas, go three miles east on Mirror Lake Highway (Highway 150) to the hatchery.

Kamas Hatchery

Historic information

The "Commercial Club" of the valley purchased the Kamas Hatchery in 1928 from Pete Crystal for a sum of $1,500.00 and the deed was given to the State of Utah. Operation of the hatchery began in 1930. The first full-time hatchery superintendent was Bill Jackland. The hatchery's elevation is 7,000 feet. Water flow averages 5.1 cubic feet per second and the temperature is 52° F. A new hatchery was designed in 1997 and a complete rebuild of all facilities was completed in 2000. Annual production of the new hatchery is 144,000 pounds or 1,424,000 fish averaging seven inches long.

Hatchery operation

Kamas currently has four full-time employees. Production includes brook, Bear Lake cutthroat, grayling, kokanee and diploid and triploid rainbows. Kamas also raises Albino rainbow trout to stock along the Mirror Lake Highway. Many of the brook trout and grayling raised by Kamas are stocked during the summer months by airplane into high elevation lakes from the North Slope of the Uinta to Boulder Mountains of southern Utah. Hatchery personnel also conduct egg taking operations at the Little Dell Bonneville Basin cutthroat trap and Strawberry trap.

Stocking

Kamas stocks fingerling brook trout and grayling into lakes and streams statewide, as well as fingerling and sub-catchable cutthroat and triploid rainbows into Strawberry Reservoir. 270,000 catchables rainbows are stocked into central and northern Utah waters as well as a number of the urban fisheries along the Wasatch front.

Vistors

Due to whirling disease in the area, visitors cannot be given "free reign" of the hatchery as was allowed at the old hatchery. Every effort is provided to give visitors a chance to see fish and learn about the hatchery, however. The hatchery is open to the public from May 1 to November 1 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., depending on snow conditions in the fall. There are number of things to do at the hatchery. Some of them are: aquarium showing a lake habitat with underwater viewing ports; viewing area operation of the hatchery rearing areas can be observed through a cover viewing area; walkway allows a panoramic view of the hatchery's raceway area and wetlands. Originally it was designed to be a viewing area for a small stream, wetland, and raceway operations but whirling disease in the Creek below the hatchery changed the design. It is a great location for bird watching; with the help of volunteers, we are able to offer scheduled tours of the facility on an "as-personnel-as-available basis". Please do not show up for a tour after fishing or with mud on your clothing or shoes.