STERLING SPRINGS FISH HATCHERY

Oak Creek begins at a natural spring located at the bottom of the switchbacks in Sterling Canyon.  The water gushes out of the ground 100 yards upstream from the Sterling Spring Fish Hatchery.  The hatchery was built in 1925 and privately owned and operated until the Arizona Fish and Game Department took it over in 1930.  

When I was a teenager in the mid 1960's, I followed the creek up Sterling Canyon and located the spring.  At some point the hatchery build a covered concrete cistern over it and started piping the water directly to the hatchery.

The outdoor fish troughs.

The canyon and spring is named after a man known as 'Sterling' who build one cabin at the head of the canyon and a second cabin near Vultee Arch over the ridge west of Slide Rock.  Little is known about him and he was only in the area for a few years.  Judging by where he built his cabins he must have been a hunter and animal skinner that moved back-and-forth between the two cabins with the seasons.

The hatchery is surrounded by an eight foot electric fence and the

outdoor fish troughs are covered with chain link to keep predators, such as bear, fox, raccoons,  skunks and humans out of the outdoor fish troughs.

On the grounds is an administrative cabin, garage and a large metal shed nestled back in the trees. Inside the shed is a row of clear polycarbonate tubes that hold as many as half-a-million trout eggs when all are full.  The eggs are transported from a spawning hatchery in Utah to the Sterling Springs Hatchery which specializes in growing the eggs because the water quality and constant 46 degree water temperature doesn't freeze in the winter so the hatchery can operate year round. The eggs are about the size of peas and are red with two black spots inside which become the eyes.  Spring water slowly circulates through the tubes and an attendant must gently stir the eggs several times a day by slowly turning a paddle inside each tube.

Sharlin Erickson standing in front of tubes containing 350,000 trout eggs.

When the eggs hatch they are moved to an array of tanks inside the building so they have room to grow into one inch hatchlings.  Then they are moved to the outdoor troughs to grow larger still. Finally, at three inches long they are transported to the Page Springs Fish Hatchery near Cornville until they are released into Arizona lakes and streams.

Indoor hatching tanks. 



Outdoor fingerling troughs.



Oak Creek now starts where the water is released from the hatchery.

  



The Sterling Springs Fish Hatchery has been closed due to the Slide Fire that raged through Oak Creek and Sterling Canyons in May of 2014.  Risk of mud and ash flows during spring thaws and monsoon rains will keep it closed indefinitely.  Arizona Fish and Game employee Sharlin Erickson lost her job when the hatchery closed.

In the winter of 2016 the hatchery was reopened.

 In 2019 the hatchery was undergoing a 3.2 million dollar renovation.