America's Trout Town
Hundreds of ponds teeming with fish shimmer in the sunlight at the world’s largest trout farm in Buhl, Idaho.
Hundreds of ponds teeming with fish shimmer in the sunlight at the world’s largest trout farm in Buhl, Idaho. For nearly 80 years, fish farmers in Idaho’s Magic Valley have used water cascading from thousands of natural springs along the Snake River to raise rainbow trout for America’s dinner tables.
"I helped build these ponds in 1973," says Glenn Eastman, 46, a pond technician at Clear Springs Foods’ Box Canyon facility north of Buhl. "We poured all the concrete out here."
Eastman’s father, Ted Eastman, founded Clear Springs Foods in 1966 and helped the company become the largest trout producer in North America. Today, Clear Springs, which operates four of the Magic Valley’s 80 fish farms, produces 20 million pounds of rainbow trout annually—about half of the state’s total—for shipment to supermarkets and restaurants across the nation.
Buhl (pop. 3,935) takes pride in its trout industry, which employs more than 1,000 people in all facets, from fish hatcheries to processing plants. Signs along Broadway Avenue, the town’s main street, proclaim Buhl as America’s Trout Capital, and community leaders are raising money to erect a 30-foot stainless steel sculpture of a leaping rainbow trout to celebrate the town’s centennial next year.
"We are an agriculture town," Mayor Barbara Gietzen says. "We either farm or we grow fish."
Buhl was founded in 1906 and named for Frank H. Buhl, a Sharon, Pa., native and entrepreneur who donated land for the original town site. Early settlers diverted irrigation water from the Snake River onto the surrounding farmland, which today produces an abundance of crops, including barley and beans.
"It’s called the Magic Valley because the pioneers turned the valley from a desert into some of the richest farm ground in the nation," says Dave Erickson, 65, a fisheries biologist who retired last year after 30 years with Clear Springs Foods.
Jack and Selma Tingey, who moved to Buhl from Utah in 1928, raised the first commercial trout in the area. Today, the Tingey farm is owned by Clear Springs Foods, which employs 400 workers and processes 90,000 pounds of trout daily.
The trout industry is dependent on water pouring from coldwater springs on the north side of the Snake River. "The water is an ideal 58 degrees," says Gary Fornshell, a University of Idaho aquaculture extension educator in nearby Twin Falls. "That just happens to be the optimum temperature for trout."
Local fish farmers also use warm water from geothermal springs on the south side of the river to raise 1.5 million pounds of tilapia and 350,000 pounds of catfish each year, as well as aquarium fish and alligators.
"Up here nobody’s seen an alligator," says Leo Ray, 67, who feeds the gators waste from the family’s fish processing plant in nearby Hagerman (pop. 656).
In 1996, the Rays created a public viewing area because so many people were stopping by their home to ask if they could see the large, snaggle-toothed reptiles, which are raised for their meat and hides.
"We couldn’t get any work done," recalls Leo, who moved to Buhl from California with his wife, Judy, in the early 1970s to raise catfish. "People would come up to the house and knock on the door."
Leo and his son, Tod, 44, also raise white sturgeon for their meat and eggs, which are prized for caviar, and are considering raising freshwater turtles to diversify their operation.
"We’ve been trying to do new things all along," Leo says. "The challenges are what make it fun."
For more information on Buhl, log on to www.buhlidaho.us or call (208) 543-6682.
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