Fish Lake's History

March 11, 1889: Fish Lake Water Agreement - Paiute Indian Tribe sold all rights and title to the Fremont Irrigation Company for the right to fish the outlet forever along with 9 horses, 500 lbs. flour, 1 good beef steer, and 1 suit of clothes.

February 10, 1899: The Fish Lake Forest Reserve of 67,840 acres was established by President William McKinley to protect the Fish Lake and Fremont River watersheds. The Fish Lake Basin was the first unit of what would eventually become the Fishlake National Forest.

May 2, 1906: Fillmore Forest Reserve of 399,600 acres established by President Theodore Roosevelt.

February 6, 1907: Glenwood Forest Reserve of 173,896 acres established by president Theodore Roosevelt.

March 4, 1907: The name of National Reserve is changed to National Forest. The Fish Lake Forest Reserve officially became known as the Fishlake National Forest.

1907: Headquarters of the Fishlake National Forest located in Salina, Utah.

June 18, 1908: Beaver and Fillmore Forests combined to form the Fillmore National Forest.

July 1, 1908: Glenwood and Fishlake Forests combined to form the Fishlake National Forest.

Sept. 24, 1923: Fillmore National Forest became part of the Fishlake National Forest with headquarters in Richfield.

1959: Headquarters of the Fishlake National Forest located in Richfield, Utah.

Richfield Reaper, July 16, 1923:

Fishlake ideal place for lovers of outdoors

We read in the Kayesville Reflex published by our friend and former president of the Utah State Press Association W. P. Epperson.

Utah is indeed fortunate in having such a natural resort and outing place as Fishlake. If there is another lake in the Rocky Mountains that can compare with Fishlake, the writer would like to visit it!

Fishlake is located on top of the Wasatch range at an altitude of 8,700 feet near the east boundary line of sevier county and is 223 miles from Kayesville by speedometer. There are good cabin and boarding accommodations at the lake, boats both row and motor guides with fishing tackle and good roads both to the resort and through the district.

Fishlake is properly named and the party of Kayesville and Salt Lake people who spent the Fourth of July there can testify to the fitness of the name.

It was cool in the fine aspen groves that border the lake, it was pleasant fishing or motoring, the sleeping accommodations were good, and the grub the best that Utah could produce, and the cooks who prepare it -- the best on earth. And so it was that the party had a grand outing going, while there, and coming home. It might be an improvement in the scheme of things if, after dying and going to heaven, one might spend a few days' vacation each summer at Fishlake...

Richfield Reaper, September 15, 1921:

FISHLAKE WILL BE STOCKED WITH A MILLION TROUT

What State Fish and Game Commissioner Madsen has to say about it

At the regular weekly commercial club luncheon last Monday the members present enjoyed the company of State Fish and Game Commissioner D. H. Madsen who had come down to Richfield to attend business in connection with the proposed new fish hatchery at Glenwood and took this occasion to discuss with the members not only the new hatchery but also the request made by the Fishlake Sportsmen Club and Commercial Clubs from Salt Lake City down to Panguitch for restocking Fishlake [with] a million fish each year...

The commissioner smiled at the idea that there was danger of stocking the lake and stated that where a hundred summer homes surround the lake and as many boats plied the waters of the lake for fish, and thousands of sportsmen are waiting for some good place to go fishing, there is no possibility of overstocking such such waters. The building of the new hatchery does not mean the abandonment of experiments for hatching fish at the lake, but the inaccessibility of the lake during the winter months would not permit of the operation of a hatchery of two and one half million capacity, such as the Glenwood plant will be. Members present were assured that the Fish and Game Department realized the necessity of furnishing at least a million fish each year for Fishlake and that a special effort bould be made to bring in a supply of both Mackinaw and native trout.

"I will do more for Fishlake than you expect me to do," concluded Mr. Madsen.

Richfield Reaper, September 29, 1921:

Spectacles Lost Twenty Years are Found at Fish Lake

A Fishlake Story -- And Not a Fish Story Either

Exactly twenty years ago this summer, when fishing in Fishlake was auch that you did not use any rods and any bait, but simply took a club to kill the trout you saw near the shore, Mr. and Mrs. G.T. Bean took some visitors to the lake. Mrs. Bean gave her eyeglasses to her husband to take them along so she could do some reading while Mr. Bean was fishing, and Mr. Bean kept them in his vest pocket. Upon arrival Mr. Bean immediately vent to work to catch enough fiah for the meal and clubbed fifteen of them very quickly. In bending down to take the trout out of the water, the specs must have fallen out of his pocket into the lake, for when Mrs. Bean wanted them they were gone. Mr. Bean searchcd for them in the water but his labor was without avail. Byron Hanchet of Annabella, then a young man, now our District Fish and Game Warden, happened to come to the lake and seeing Mr. Bean carefully spying asked him jokingly: "You dont have to look for that way?" and the reply was, "In case you catch a trout with specs on his nose, the glasses belong to my wife."

Twenty years rolled by, and a few weeks ago, Warden Hanchet went to the lake on official business and looking over the situation near the shore he saw something sticking out of the sand. He reached for it and saw it was a pair of eyeglasses. Remembering the incident of twenty years ago, he took the glasses to Mr. Bean, who recognized them as those he had lost. The spectacles were in perfect condition, too, with the only exception of one lens broken.

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