The Durango State Fish Hatchery, the oldest state-owned hatchery in Colorado, was established at its present site in 1893. The building pictured above was added in 1927 and functioned as the main hatchery until it was repurposed as a wildlife museum in the 1970s. The Colorado Parks and Wildlife Department operates 19 fish hatcheries. It estimates that fishing contributes $1.9 billion to the state’s economy each year. The Durango hatchery raises rainbow, brown, Snake River cutthroat, and native cutthroat trout and kokanee salmon. Each year, about 150,000 catchable rainbows and 1.3 million sub-catchable fish (1 to 5 inches in length) are stocked in southwestern Colorado lakes and streams. In this picture, crews with nets load fingerlings into 5-gallon ‘milk’ cans for stocking at a nearby waterway. – Ed Horvat for Animas Museum, edhorvat@animasmuseum (Courtesy of La Plata County Historical Society)