2 weeks Ago
With a new pavilion that will cap off the interpretive trail system well underway, Friends of the Fairport Fish Hatchery (FFFH) held a tour of the construction site Thursday. After three years of collecting for the project, the bones of the pavilion stand near the main entrance to the historic hatchery. Inside the main building were several displays that are going to be featured inside the pavilion once it is completed.
Construction on the pavilion at the Fairport Fish Hatchery is underway and is slated to be done by the end of the year. Sandy Stevens, president of FFFH, said the group was started four years ago to educate the public about the history of the hatchery and its ties to the pearl button industry in the region. “The whole purpose of this fish hatchery was for them to understand how to propagate mussels and put them back into the river,” Stevens said.
The hatchery was started in 1908 by an act of Congress to be a research station to help understand the propagation of mussels. As the pearl button industry began to form, Stevens said, it was discovered that the mussels in the river had been depleted and other sources would be needed. Sandy Stevens, president of the Friends of the Fairport Fish Hatchery, shows some of the educational boards that will be displayed in the pavilion on the hatchery grounds when it is completed.
Stevens said the FFFH goal is to bring people to the hatchery. He said the two interpretive trails are done and the pavilion will be completed “before there is snow on the ground.” He said the educational panels that will be installed in the pavilion will tell different stories about life along the Mississippi and the impact of the pearl button industry.
There will also be a pictorial about changes in the hatchery through the years. Stevens said the project had begun because of a discussion he had with Terry Eagle, the former director of the National Pearl Button Museum in Muscatine. He said at the time the two had been working to save the pump house on the hatchery grounds.
During that time, they developed the idea for making the historic site more of an educational site. The trails opened on Earth Day 2023, which Stevens said was the first step of the $140,000 project, which included a $43,000 grant from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. He said the pavilion is the last step in the project, but the FFFH has other projects in mind that they want to bring to life.
“There will be an outdoor classroom,” he said. “There is a reservoir that they raise mussels in and we want to build an observation deck on top of that. Those are probably several years down the road.
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