Prairie Creek Fish Hatchery

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. 8 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1945.

From the record

“The Prairie Creek Fish Hatchery near Orick, Humboldt County, California was one of the first small local fish hatcheries developed to improve the area's sport and commercial fishing, and is one of only three remaining hatcheries built in California from 1871 to 1946.”
Wikipedia article Prairie Creek Fish Hatchery, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 52 National Register listings published here for Humboldt County · listed in 2000 · category: District.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 7 structuress, 5 buildingss as contributing to the listing.
Address. Milepost 124.83 on US 101, N of Orick, Orick, 95555
When was it listed? February 2000
Category. district
Census division. North Coastal
National Register reference number. 00000034 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Then and now

1945 to 1982

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 37 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering Prairie Creek Fish Hatchery, surveyed 1982

Topographic sheet covering Prairie Creek Fish Hatchery, surveyed 1945

Fires near this property

84 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 84 fires within 5 miles of Prairie Creek Fish Hatchery between 1992 and 2020, burning about 45 acres in total. 18 started naturally. 4 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Recreation and ceremony	24
Natural	18
Equipment and vehicle use	13
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	12
Debris and open burning	6
Power generation/transmission/distribution	4
Arson/incendiarism	4
Fireworks	2
Smoking	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
8 September 2003	Natural	under an acre	Redwood National and State Parks	GANNS1
6 September 2014	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Redwood National and State Parks	LADY BIRD
6 September 2003	Natural	under an acre	Redwood National and State Parks	GANNS 2
6 September 2003	Natural	under an acre	Redwood National and State Parks	LOST
6 September 2003	Natural	1.0 acres	Redwood National and State Parks	GANNS 3
6 September 2003	Natural	1.0 acres	Redwood National and State Parks	GANNS 4
4 September 2003	Natural	1.0 acres	Humboldt-Del Norte Unit	LYONS RANCH III
3 September 2003	Natural	under an acre	Redwood National and State Parks	LBJ2

Every fire recorded in Humboldt County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 14 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 14 workings within 5 miles of Prairie Creek Fish Hatchery: 6 producers, 5 occurrences, 3 unknowns. 6 still produce. What was taken out: Gold, Platinum, Chromium, Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Surpur Creek	Gold, Platinum	Occurrence	Stream Placer
Union Gold Bluff Mining Co.	Gold, Palladium, Ruthenium, Iridium, Osmium, Platinum, Rhodium	Producer	Beach Placer
Upper Gold Bluffs	Gold, PGE	Occurrence
Mcarthur	Chromium	Unknown
Redwood Creek Bar	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Redwood Creek Bypass	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Producer
Unknown	Chromium	Occurrence	Chromite
Lower Gold Bluffs	Gold, Platinum	Occurrence
Two States Mining Co.	Gold, Platinum	Producer	1852
Two States Mining Co.	Gold, Platinum	Occurrence

Every working recorded in Humboldt County

Storms near this property

7 since 2003

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Orick, the town this property stands in, in 7 storm reports between 2003 and 2025: 2 hail, 2 flood, 1 funnel cloud, 1 thunderstorm wind. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
December 2021	Hail	Orick	$4,000	Law enforcement report of small hail covering Highway 101 in northern Humboldt County around 3:41 a.m. Law enforcement report stated a car accident occurred on the hail covered road. Duration of small hail and exact size unknown, though likely smaller than pea size.
March 2024	Heavy Rain	Orick	$3,500	Debris flow blocking both norht and south lanes of traffic about 3 miles south southwest of Orick, CA. LAT. 41.23N, LONG. -124.08W.
February 2019	Hail	Orick	$1,500	Report of an accident due to a hail covered roadway. Troopers requested a plow to clear the roadway.
December 2025	Flood	Orick	-	Flooding reported on Highway 101 between Davidson Road and Lost Man Creek. Davidson Road also flooded.
December 2022	Flood	Orick	-	Flooding of Prairie Creek led to the shutdown of Davidson Road in Redwood National Park.
February 2004	Thunderstorm Wind	Orick	-	Patrick's Point State Park
December 2003	Funnel Cloud	Orick	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Humboldt County

Maps showing this location

8 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

1945 USGS Orick quadrangle1:62500
1949 USGS Eureka quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1952 USGS Orick quadrangle1:62500 - 2 printings
1958 USGS Crescent City quadrangle1:250000
1958 USGS Eureka quadrangle1:250000
1961 USGS Eureka quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1966 USGS Orick quadrangle1:24000 - 2 printings
1982 USGS Orick quadrangle1:100000

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 00000034 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Humboldt County	All 52 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.