A Dissertation Flies Only: Early Sport Fishing Conservation on Michigan’s Au Sable River By Bryon Borgelt Submitted as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctoral of Philosophy in History _________________________________ Advisor: Diane F. Britton _________________________________ College of Graduate Studies The University of Toledo May 2009 An Abstract of Flies Only: Early Sport Fishing Conservation on Michigan’s Au Sable River Bryon Borgelt Submitted as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctoral of Philosophy in History The University of Toledo May 2009 This dissertation focuses on the earliest stage of fish conservation on the Au Sable River of Michigan. It begins with the popularization of the grayling fishery in the nation’s sporting journals, such as Forest and Stream and Scribner’s Monthly where Thad Norris and others wrote of the adventure and abundance of fly fishing on the Au Sable. By the 1890s the grayling were all but gone due in part to over fishing, commercial lumbering and the introduction of non-native brook trout. Despite the absence of the grayling, a sustainable sport fishing industry had risen from the ashes of the cut over lands of the Michigan High Plains. Early sport fishers had recognized man’s role in the loss of grayling and began their own versions of fish and stream conservation centered in the towns of Grayling and Lovells. Early fish conservation looked directly at protecting the resource itself, and not the modern holistic approach that encompasses the entire ecosystem. The first focus was to create state laws that closed seasons and promoted more sporting methods of capture such as the use of a hook and line. Then the state focused on the enforcement of laws with the game warden system. In Michigan, county game wardens, with full legal authority, could be hired by private citizens, clubs and special interest groups. This system pitted outside conservation agendas against a local reluctance to follow state laws. Another early fish conservation method was the hatchery system. Artificial fish propagation had been perfected in the US in the 1850s and was put ii to use to bolster fish populations against natural threats and fishing pressure. Privatization had been one of the most basic forms of conservation. Keeping anglers and hunters off the water and land certainly meant increased wildlife populations. Anglers along the South Branch strung barbed wire across the river, violating state law which stated that navigable rivers were held in the public domain. In 1907, fly fishing anglers along the North Branch of the Au Sable sought a different form of restricted public access, the creation of the nation’s first fly fishing only regulation of public water. Under the direction of William B. Mershon, a wealthy lumberman from Saginaw, Michigan, and T. E. Douglas, a lodge owner on the North Branch, flies were the only legal method of fish capture on a large portion of the North Branch. Mershon first advocated for this legislation once he purchased several thousand acres adjoining the river as a means to protect juvenile trout and keep people off his portions of the stream. The law went in and out of effect between 1907 and 1928 and provided interesting commentary on the conservation movement’s struggle to form a cohesive identity. Although Mershon’s law was repealed due to a lack of scientific support, it did launch interest into the conservation merits of fly fishing and started the legacy of fish conservation for which the Au Sable is famous for and would eventually lead to the creation of Trout Unlimited. iii Table of Contents Table of Contents . iv I. Introduction: Fly Fishing Conservation. 1 II. Fly Fishing Revolutions . 36 III. Fishtown . 54 IV. Thymallus tricolor. 71 V. The Interlopers. 104 VI. River Police. 129 VII. The Grayling Fish Hatchery . 154 VIII. Douglas Land and the Dream Realized . 166 IX. The Legacy . 197 X. Bibliography. 213 iv Introduction Fly Fishing Conservation 1 1 Fig. 1. Michigan Department of Conservation Crawford County Map from The Lovells Historical Society. 1 Michigan’s Au Sable River has been an angling destination since the 1870s when it gained national prominence for its grayling fishery. Sport fishing authorities popularized the fishery in sporting periodicals. Soon recreational anglers took advantage of rail lines and headed North from Saginaw, Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland and Chicago. Within a few years the grayling population had crashed due to over fishing, logging and the introduction of non-native brook trout. The grayling’s extinction coincided with American advances in industry, technology, increased urban development and rapidly growing numbers of immigrants. Grayling was one species among several, including buffalo and the passenger pigeon that revealed the threats of America’s growing population and economic wealth. The angling public quickly realized these threats and advocated protection for sport fish. Early Au Sable angling conservation started a legacy of cold water fish conservation that survives to this day. The Grayling, Michigan area had always been a place of outsider interest and intervention. This dates back to the area’s early logging days. This trend continued with fish conservation as outside experts from Saginaw, Chicago and Detroit sought to regulate the waters of the Au Sable, to protect them from natural and man made threats. This relationship put outside conservation against traditional, local riparian uses. Legal battles, court intervention, regulation, the hiring of loyal game wardens, the growth in the state’s Fish Commission and numerous fish protection laws ensued. The most controversial of the early fish conservation laws came from the influence of William B. Mershon, a wealthy box factory owner and investor from Saginaw. Mershon was one of the state’s leading outdoors men. He was known for his hunting and fishing exploits around the United States and Canada. Despite his numerous travels, the North Branch of 2 the Au Sable was one of his favorite destinations. In the 1890s he took his private train car to Lovells, Michigan where he and his angling friends would spend days fly fishing the North Branch. He eventually purchased several thousand acres along the North Branch. Mershon quickly advocated for the stream to become fly fishing only. This 1907 law was the first time that a public stream had excluded traditional sport angling methods other than fly fishing. The fly fishing only regulation highlighted the tension between stream conservation from outsiders and locals who fished the stream primarily for subsistence. The fly law was part of a larger debate in America’s angling publications. Where trout subsistence fish or recreational fish? Fish as food or fish as recreation was one of the main debates during this time period. State and local regulations affecting the Au Sable River developed to favor recreational angling as part of the broader conservation program. Conservation emphasized over preservation. Conservation commonly refers to the wise use, or regulated use of a resource to maximize its potential. Preservation calls for the complete protection of the resource without any extraction or use. There were no serious calls for preservation on the Au Sable, although Mershon did advocate preservation on a nearby stretch of the Manistee River for grayling protection. Conservation was the name of the game on the Au Sable. It took the form of state regulation, game wardens, artificial trout propagation and the control of river access. River access has been one of the central arguments of fish conservation. Early conservation sought to keep the general public away from the fish through either the privatization of a stream or through narrowing restrictions. The North Branch’s fly only law was viewed as part of this conservation through privatization. 3 Au Sable River conservation had several general components. Regulation often came from outside actors. Laws and regulations were imposed by either the state, the Fish Commission, or outside angling interest groups and conservation leaders. These regulations emphasized the aesthetic nature of trout and trout fishing. Increased regulation and the passage of time moved trout further away from its subsistence relationship with humans and more towards a sporting relationship based on aesthetics. Scientific management coincided with governmental management. The scientific propagation of trout became the preferred solution to deal with the depleted grayling and trout streams. Finally, riparian access was regulated. Threats to the stream and fish were controlled through stream privatization, increased regulation and law enforcement. Few things get a fisherman’s blood boiling faster than the loss of access to his favorite fishing hole. Follow any angler down to his favorite fishing hole on his local stream. This is the sort of place that he has gotten to know over the past decade or more of fishing. A spot where the current flows just right, between boulders and over gravel, sweeping just down stream in a narrow chute where summer smallmouth bass crash shad just before dawn. Or, the perfect riffle where reliable hatches are found every season along with the large brown trout with the scar across his back from when he escaped a predacious larger brother as a fry. Now watch that fisherman get his gear ready, run his line through the guides on his rod. He may patiently select just the right fly, or without thinking tie on the old reliable, one that has worked time and time again. Leaving the road he ambles down the well worn path, leading to the sort of spot where kids and families like to skip rocks, but one that most fishermen overlook. On his walk he may recall how last week the fishing proved to be tough. A few small fish were hooked, but 4 the larger fish that make this spot so special never appeared.