I,,. A I. I|. \"t\ / "WHAT WAS THAT YOU SAID YOU WERE FISHIN' FER, OBIE?" letters to the Eidtar OUTDO( Dear Sir: name Wetzel-instead of the proper I would like to take this opportunity Whetzel-is largely the fault of Zane to toss a bouquet and a brickbat at the Grey who dropped the "h"; why we DIANA same time. First off, your magazine is do not know. The family still spells doing a swell job and many of the arti- their name Whetzel and the old grave- cles fit right into our scheme of things, stone shown with the story bears out A old guns and shooting. Our organization the fact that it was the accepted spell- Vol. XIX, No. 6 Issued Monthly ing when Jacob Whetzel died. The follows your historical articles with avid JUNE, 1952 interest. championship shoot was a trap shoot. Address all communications, Editor, Outdoor Indi- Now the brickbats. On page 16 (April) Dear Editor: ana, 311-325 W. Washington St., Indianapolis 9, Ind. is pictured a long rifle under the caption Regarding the article in the April of "flintlock" rifle. This rifle is clearly issue, "Taste of Fowls." You can mix a caplock rifle and though it may be a wheat and rye and give it to chickens. converted flintlock, it is definitely a cap- They will pick out the wheat grains and lock. Next is the name of the Wetzel That would indicate a CONTENTS leave the rye. Page family. In all the books we have avail- highly-developed sense of taste. able the name is spelled without the LETTERS TO EDITOR .................. 1 LEE MADDOX, TROUT STOCKED........ 2 "H." Maybe you should shed some light 12,000 Oaktown. LEGAL RESPONSIBILITIES ................ 3 on this fact. Next is the championship REDBUD ARCHERY TOURNEY ................ 4 Shoot article on page 23. There was con- Science is founded upon theory, ex- CONSERVATION CAMP OPENS .......... 6 siderable doubt left as to what kind of perimentation and observation. Thanks THIS STATE OF OURS - 7 shooting was done and what type of for your observations, sir. KENTLAND JR. RIFLES ............................ 8 guns were used. Dear Sir: McCORMICK'S CREEK STATE PARK ...... 12 Keep up the good work and we hope I have just recently become familiar WHERE SILENCE HAS LEASE ... 14 for more frontier articles for OUTDOOR with your publication OUTDOOR INDI- INDIANA BOGS TELL STORY .............. 15 INDIANA. ANA, and consider it one of the finest UNCLE JIM . ~.-..~......... 17 CHARLES L. SINGLETON, Secretary, publications with which I have come in AGRICULTURAL NOTES........................ 20 IndianapolisBlackpowder Gun Club. contact. THE PORCUPINE .......... ................ 23 Of special interest to me were the two EDITOR'S PAGE....................-- . 24 Well, sir, we have about reached the issue, "Ori- conclusion that we are not doing such fine articles in the February gin of the Ohio" and "Water and Flour." a good job if we leave our readers with I have on occasion visited several of the as many questions as you have put to mills mentioned in the latter article and us! We apologize for the misleading Editor was especially glad to obtain some his- caption. That was strictly an error on BOB HOOVER torical information about them. our part and Mr. H. W. Rothgeb of Associate Editor Hoagland also pointed out the mistake. RUSSELL J. WHISTLER, JR. MARGARET LANAHAN McABEE (Incidentally, the writer should have Corps of Engineers, known better.) The spelling of the Louisville, Kentucky. 0 THE COVER You can certainly tell it's the good old sum- mertime in Indiana when you see a youngster out along the stream bank with his bamboo EDITORIAL BOARD pole and a can of worms. And just as often as not, you'll find the lad having difficulty HENRY F. SCHRICKER with a fishhook in his thumb or a tangle in his line. Governor Our cover this month shows one of "the men in green," a state conservation officer, un- JOHN A. WATKINS tangling a line for a member of the younger set. We have done a lot of writing about con- of Agriculture Lieutenant-Governor and Commissioner servation education, but the men who work in the field day in and day out are really much INDIANA DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION better equipped to spread the gospel of good James M. Tucker, Chairman Ora Ax Howard Hiestand Robert H. Heller sportsmanship and good conduct as evidenced by this photo. ,Kenneth M. Kunkel, Director So here's to all the kids and their crappies, and here's to all the officers who untangle the Published monthly by the Indiana Department of Agriculture in cooperation with the Indiana Depart- ment of Conservation. Offices at 311-325 West Washington St., Indianapolis, Ind. (Entered as second- lines and take out the fishhooks for them: A class matter at the Post Office, Indianapolis, Indiana, under the Acts of June 6, 1900.) bountiful limit of fish for you, lad. And more Permission for republication of any material from this issue is hereby given with a request that proper good sports -than bad sports for you, sir. credit be given. Responsibility for the return of unsolicited manuscripts and photographs is not assumed unless sender's request is accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Conservation Department Photo. OUTDOOR INDIANA * Page 1 12,000 TROUT STOCKED IN INDIANA'S STREAMS N ow that early returns from the 1952 trout season are coming in, Hoosier anglers are going to have some tall and fancy explaining to do to the little woman if they fail to bring home the limit next weekend. What with more than 12,000 legal- size rainbow and brown trout stocked in northern Indiana lakes and streams, al- most every angler who heads north should return with a pretty fair catch. Now, don't go alibi Ike'in', brother; the Department of Conservation knows those trout are there, 'cause they put 'em those three pictured here-we didn't let The day we went to LaGrange county there! And this writer was there and them die just to get a picture. We put on a trout-planting trip, the weather was saw 'em! As per the accompanying pho- them right back in the lake and they took bitter cold and alternating rain with tographs, you can see these rainbows and off fast. snow. It might have been spring in the browns range from about 7 inches to 14 This trout-stocking job was a tiring, south, but the north still had winter or 15 inches. And stop worrying about repetitive process to the men of your (Continued on Page 6) state fish hatcheries. These boys had to man two tank trucks, drive in relays to the federal hatcheries at Neosha, Mis- souri, load up with trout and start right back, driving day and night, to complete the job by the time our season opened May 1. In all, 16 trips were made to Neosha, eight by each truck. The trans- port and stocking job took about eight weeks to complete. Some 7,100 legal-size rainbows were released in the 13 counties of northern Indiana, and an additional 4,900 brown trout were placed in the waterways of LaPorte, St. Joseph, Elkhart, LaGrange, Steuben, DeKalb, Allen and Noble coun- ties. Legal Responsibilities of Water Resources By CHARLES H. BECHERT, Director Division of Water Resources systems 347 municipal water OF servingthe Indiana communities, 296 obtain water from the ground. With in- creasing populations and the influx of new industries many of these cities and towns are facing difficult problems of augmenting their supplies and developing new ground water sources. This is one of the reasons the Division of Water Resources has been making studies of ground water conditions in various parts of the state. Not only is it concerned with the wa- ters underground, however, but it is en- gaged in investigating the streams and lakes of the state and appraising its other water resources. For, while the majority of cities use ground water for their municipal supply, most larger cities de- pend on surface waters. Power compa- nies and many industrial concerns also use large quantities of surface water from our rivers and lakes. It is, therefore, important to know resource point of view, but also from the quantities of water available for such an struction and recleaning of drainage economic use, especially if the demand for water and recreational standpoint. At ditches, and one of the purposes of the continues to rise as it has during the the present time 110 lake gaging stations lake level law is to enable the court to past decade or two. Information on the are being operated. These stations con- set a legal level at which the lake can flow of our streams is also important to sist of a staff gage installed at some con- be maintained without adversely inter- fering with the engineer who is responsible for the venient location in the lake where daily needed drainage and at the design of bridges which span them and observations and recordings are made of same time preserving the lake from fur- for the design of flood control projects. the surface elevation of the water in the ther harm. Under the provisions of this law, Such data is also needed for the design lake. In addition to the daily water level the average normal water level has been established on 63 lakes. Several and operation of hydro-electric projects, records of these lakes, periodic measure- control for irrigation projects, operation of mu- ments of the surface inflow and outflow dams have been built to main- tain these levels and a number of others nicipal and industrial sewage treatment of the lake are made.