Quarry COE Park and Norfolk National Fish Hatchery

I had a day before my reservations started at Sylamore Creek Camp, so I stopped at Quarry COE Park, on the back side of Norfolk Dam.

You can't help but wonder what would happen if that dam ever broke.

When the dam generates electricity the Norfolk River has a lot of water in it and is flowing pretty fast.

But when the turbines are turned off, the river drops dramatically and lots of dry spots pop up out in the river.  Notice the low lying fog on the river?  Just a few miles downriver, the Norfolk flows into the White River.

These stairs lead down to Dry Run Creek, which flows into the Norfolk River just below the dam.

It's a pretty little stream and up the creek is lies next to the fish hatchery.

The fish hatchery provides trout to the entire White River Basin and the Illinois River Basin in Oklahoma.  The usually turn the trout loose between 6 in and 11 in, these are here just for show.

Inside the hatchery building are 20 tanks.  Each tank hold between 35,000-45,000 baby fish.  Approximate 60% survive to be transferred to the outside tanks until they are large enough to be released.  This hatchery releases about 450,000 pounds of trout annually.

No, that is not snow, it's pollen from the Cottonwood tree.  No wonder I'm having allergy problems!

Outside the hatchery is a boardwalk on Dry Run Creek.  They have the ability to release trout directly into this stream, although most of the trout are trucked to other release locations.