The Great Pierce County 'Steelhead' War
Local fishermen take a heated debate about fish biology all the way to Stanford University.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The fishermen of Pierce County are at war. I. A. Kimball recently offered a $10 bamboo fishing outfit to the man bringing in the largest trout. William Gillard, of Puyallup, brought in a 7-pound 15-ounce steelhead, which was the champion catch up to the time he reported it. He caught the steelhead at Roy, and entered it as a trout. Instantly the fishermen took sides. Some declared the steelhead to be a salmon; others, a trout. In time, the discussion grew very spirited, nearly every fisherman in the county and many outside of the county taking part. Finally, it was agreed to submit the question of the true name of Mr. Gillard's catch to President Jordan of Stanford University. A reply has just been received from Mr. Jordan, in which he pronounced the fish to be a trout—a steelhead trout. Simultaneously, another expert, August Hagerman, turned up with a steelhead weighing nine pounds six ounces. He says he caught it near South Prairie. This beats all records, but those who did not catch the big fish still persist in calling them salmon, and stoutly deny they are trout. Mr. Hagerman and his friends say, sarcastically: 'When a man makes a catch of this kind the fish are trout, but when the other fellow catches them they are surely salmon.' The Hagerman catch has been boxed and sent to President Jordan for a final decision.
“When a man makes a catch of this kind the fish are trout, but when the other fellow catches them they are surely salmon.”
Debates over fishing rights and species classification remain a flashpoint in the Pacific Northwest, though today they center more on Indigenous treaty rights and conservation management than on bamboo rod contests. The scientific authority of Stanford's David Starr Jordan was regularly invoked in the 1890s to settle regional civic disputes, mirroring how we still lean on academic expertise to resolve local policy arguments.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.