A Brief History (Origin of the Rainbow Trout)

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Where did the Rainbow Trout originate?   The simple answer would likely be …. San Diego!   The rainbow trout is native to the drainages of the United States Pacific Coast from Alaska to Mexico, the waters of the Pacific Ocean and the eastern coast of Asia. This natural range goes from the Kuskokwim River region of Alaska to the Baja California Peninsula and the coastal rivers of Mexico. In this area, many of the rivers draining into the Pacific still contain rainbow trout. But during the last 100 years, rainbow trout have been introduced into countless other waters throughout the world. Today, many rivers in the eastern US and Canada and around the world have stocks of rainbow trout, but these aren’t native, wild trout. Research suggests that the species early evolution began in the present day San Diego area. As the glaciers of the Wisconsin episode, the most recent of the four Pleistocene glaciations (approximately 40,000 years ago), melted it is thought to have allowed the current distribution of rainbow trout. When these glaciers melted, huge lakes were left all over the current range of the western US. When these lakes slowly receded, the subspecies of trout were isolated. Rainbow trout were restricted south of the Columbia River until the late Pleistocene glacial events. Then rainbow trout spread into the Columbia River drainage between 50,000 and 32,000 years ago. When the glacial lakes of the Pleistocene receded, the subspecies became more and more isolated. The California Golden Trout and the Sacramento Red-band Trout are suspected to be the most primitive subspecies. The origin of a rainbow trout-like subspecies is considered to be near the Gulf of California (near present day San Diego). There are six subspecies.   Although the species had not yet been identified, the early Rainbows were observed as an important food source of the early human inhabitants of the area. In the early 1500’s Spanish explorers recorded that the native people consumed ground nuts (likely acorns) and fish, which were plentiful in all the streams. Indeed I have recently watched the wild steelhead of Malibu Creek migrating upstream to spawn.   Curiously, during this very same timeframe (early 1500’s) the English were establishing colonies on the east coast in Newfoundland. There they found large black dogs that are believed to have descended from a large black wolf that utilized by area natives and the large dogs used by the Vikings when they established villages there 500 years earlier. These large black dogs were taken back to England and bred there. And so it came to pass that one of the first likely references to these ‘trout’ was in 1793 when Alexander Mackenzie made his epic first crossing of the North American continent by following a well worn trail along the Blackwater River in central British Columbia. In 1789, Alexander Mackenzie, a North West Company partner, explored theMackenzie Riverfrom its source to the Artic Ocean. Four years later,Mackenzie made the first successful crossing of North America. Accompanied by Alexander McKay, six French Canadians, two Indians, and a Newfoundland dog, Mackenzie left Fort Chipewyan on Lake Athabasca in 1793. The fur traders followed the Peace River to the Parsnip River, and then up the Parsnip to the Continental Divide. After a short portage to a lake, Mackenzie believed that he had reached the headwaters of the Columbia River; actually it was the Fraser River. A couple of hundred miles downriver, approximately 30 miles south of present day Quesnel, BC. Carrier Indians told Mackenzie the river could not be traveled by canoe, and miles downriver, cataracts and falls made the waterway impassable.Two Carrier Indians offered to serve as guides, the expedition turned their canoes around and paddled 60 miles back upstream to the mouth of the Blackwater River. There they located a well worn trail that had been used by aboriginal people for thousands of years to trade oolichan (small coastal fish) oil across the continent. They headed cross-country toward the Pacific Ocean, reaching the Bella Coola River, the expedition followed it to the Pacific. While waiting on Dean’s Inlet for clear weather to determine the longitude and latitude, Mackenzie used vermilion in melted grease to write on the rock. …Alexander Mackenzie, from Canada, by Land, the twenty-second of July, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-three. After his return from the Pacific, Mackenzie suggested to Simon McTavish, head of the North West Company, that if the Hudson’s Bay and North West joined forces they could control all of the fur trade in the Northwest country above Spanish California. Rebuffed by McTavish, Mackenzie went to England to talk with leaders of the Hudson’s Bay Company. While in England, King George III knighted Alexander Mackenzie. Before returning to Canada, Sir Mackenzie wrote a book on his travels titled, Voyages from Montreal on the River St. Laurence. Mackenzie's book was eagerly read by President Thomas Jefferson, who sped up the timetable for the Lewis and Clark ‘Voyage of Discovery’. Original editions of Mackenzies’ book can be found for over $10,000. President Jefferson’s instructions to Lewis and Clark were to make note of fur-bearing animals, to ascertain the attitudes of the native occupants to the fur trade, and, most fundamentally, to establish the most direct and practicable water communication across the continent, for the purposes of commerce. President Jefferson hoped that this route would serve as a more practical route for the fur trade than any the British could establish to the north. Among all of the items Lewis and Clark included to assist with their expedition was ….. a large Newfoundland dog! It has been suggested that Jefferson supplied them with a copy of Mackenzie’s book for their preparation and expedition. Coincidentally, while Mackenzie was exploring his way across North America, a German physician/zooligist named Johann Julius Walbaum, in 1792, in his book Genera Piscium, officialy gave the name Oncorhynchus mykiss to the rainbow trout. I’m not quite sure about just how he managed to obtain samples of the rainbows to classify as my German is not what it used to be (and I don’t have the time to research it). The name was disputed several times but has stuck to the present day. The Blackwater River is home to the most prolific population of wild, native rainbow trout on the planet. And on top of that, they are influenced less today by modern man than they ever were in the past. There once were many waters with abundant native populations of rainbows. These have been greatly impacted by the introduction of dams, agriculture and industrial pollutants. It is unlikely that there were any populations quite as abundant as the Blackwater’s, so if you would like a taste of what it might have been like to fish a completely untouched rainbow stream in it’s wild state and experience hard fighting wild, native fish, then you need to visit the Blackwater River. But you won't need to brind your large Newfoundland dog.