Oldest hatchery in U.S. to expand visitors center

NEOSHO, Mo. -- The national fish hatchery in this southwest Missouri town is a big attraction for school groups and tourists, but only a few people at a time can squeeze into its modest visitors center.

Now, relief is in sight, with federal funding assured for construction of a new center that will be large enough to house an auditorium and an aquarium.

Hatchery manager David Hendrix got the news recently while traveling to Rolla, Mo., to pick up a pallid sturgeon, an endangered fish whose recovery is part of the facility's mission.

"This project will benefit the kids, groups and tourism in the four-state area," Hendrix said. "Right now, we do not have the space for tour buses."

Founded in 1888, the Neosho facility is the nation's oldest active fish hatchery and has a visitors center measuring only about 400 square feet. Hendrix said it currently draws about 40,000 visitors a year.

The new center will measure 9,500 square feet -- enough, Hendrix said, to accommodate 100,000 visitors a year.

The National Fish and Wildlife Service has allocated $2.88 million in the 2007 fiscal year for the project, according to the recent announcement from Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo.

Teresa Van Winkle, president of a support group called Friends of the Neosho National fish Hatchery, was thrilled by the news.

"I literally had tears running down my face," said Van Winkle, whose group's activities including tending to the hatchery's grounds and preserving some of its older structures.

Besides the aquarium and auditorium, the new center will have staff offices, exhibits about the hatchery's history, a library and a gift shop to be managed by Van Winkle's group.

Engineers will now complete the building's design, and the project will be put out for bids. Hendrix said construction could begin this summer, with completion expected within a year.