August 15, 1957

Norfork National Fish Hatchery (NNFH), a cold-water facility located in Mountain Home (Baxter County) on the White River, opened. Norfolk Dam (completed in 1944) and Bull Shoals Dam (completed in 1951), both on the White River, increased the need for this hatchery. It is the largest-producing federal hatchery and is the largest trout hatchery in the country. NNFH receives hatchery-fertilized eggs, raising the fish to nine inches before release. Annually, more than two million rainbow, cutthroat, and brown trout are released. Norfork is one of three hatcheries in Arkansas under the administration of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of the U.S. Department of the Interior, which has established seventy hatcheries in thirty-five states.