Spring Grove Fish Hatchery-- Part 2: Winter Time Ice Skating and a Real Nice Park

Winter time was a favorite of the children of Spring Grove as they would bundle up and go out to the fish hatchery ponds for a day of ice skating.  Thomas McCaferty  was known to leave the door to the hatchery building open so the children could come inside and warm up, something much appreciated on those chill days.

While the fish hatchery was an important part of the growth of Spring Grove for nearly a century, it closed in 2005.  (We moved to Spring Grove in 1992.)

The property was acquired by the Village of Spring Grove in 2007 (I understand for the princely sum of $1) with the goal of turning  the old hatchery into a community park with a historical display to commemorate and explain what it was and how the hatchery did it.

With a number of volunteers, some money, the area was transferred into a beautiful park.  The ponds needed reconstruction and walking paths were built around the pools along with fishing piers.

Fishing is allowed, but no live bait and it is catch and release.

The park was completed and opened to the public in 2012.  There is a small charge if you are not a resident of the village.

Every year in the spring they have a major fundraiser at Spring Grove's Horse Fair Park with a Door County-style fish boil put on by Fitzgerald's in nearby Genoa City.

It is one really pretty place.

--CootFish

Spring Grove Fish Hatchery-- Part 1: A Perfect Location

From the March 21, 2018, Hi-Liter "Former Fish Hatchery" reborn" by Sandra Landen Machaj.

Spring Grove was the home of the very first State of Illinois Fish hatchery in 1914.  A group of 16 men and Thomas McCaferty built eight concrete ponds in the swampy land near Nippersink Creek to be used as a fish hatchery.

This was a perfect site because of the great source of water from a spring located there (which I believe to be the spring that gives Spring Grove its name).

The ponds and associated buildings constructed there became known as the Spring Grove Fish Hatchery and eggs were incubated in the building.  Once hatched, they were moved to one of the ponds to continue growing until they were big enough to survive in the open waterways.

Each fall, the little fish, known as fingerlings, were released into Illinois waterways including rivers, lakes and even Lake Michigan.  By 1967, more than 500,000 fish were produced annually, making it the largest fish hatchery in Illinois.

--Cooter

Spring Grove Fish Hatchery: So That's Where the Springs Are

I have often wondered whatever happened to the spring from whence the name of our village, Spring Grove, comes from.  I've even asked several people in the village where the springs were and they didn't know.  One of them was friend Ed whose family has owned the old Hatch farm since in early 1900s.  And, even he didn't know.

Then, I came across an article about the Spring Grove Fish Hatchery that I had put aside back in 2018 and went on this blog and looked up Spring Grove Fish Hatchery just to be sure I hadn't already written the article in this blog, and I hadn't.

But, I did read that the reason the fish hatchery was located where it is was because of the hard-flowing spring there.  The fish hatchery is located very near what there is of a "downtown" in the old part of the village.

So, this must be where the springs that lent their name to our village are located.

You Can Fool Some of the Folks Some of the Time, But This Blogger Most of the Time.  --Cootfish