Nebraskaland

November 2021 • Nebraskaland 63 The reservoir must have been far enough along to hold some water upon the Grables' departure, though. "Some very fi ne ice has been put up in Crawford this week, cut from the Grable lake south of town," stated a January 1901 one-sentence news report in the Tribune. Prior to modern refrigeration, ice was harvested during winter and stored for later use. At Fort Robinson, reports indicate it was cut from the Ice House Ponds and housed in a wooden building between Soldier Creek and the fort's veterinary hospital, near what is now U.S. Highway 20. Reportedly, the building was later sold and moved to Agate Springs Ranch south of Harrison. While the Ice House Ponds remain an attraction, the Grable Lake, or Lake Crawford, has long sat empty because of damage to the dam and outlet structure. The other ponds named for the family, which were constructed for the hatchery and likely named such as a matter of convenience, have been transformed to one of Fort Robinson's most popular fi shing spots. In the decade following his departure, Francis Grable focused ambitions to the area north of Fort Collins, Colorado, developing irrigation ditches and roads. Those eff orts were halted when he was arrested in 1912 after being tied to a bank embezzlement scheme. After a judge dismissed Grable's case, he moved to Clermont, Florida, and entered the citrus industry. It was later reported the city of Clermont was so thankful for his contributions to the region that it gifted him with a trip to Europe. Despite the legal problems, he was regarded as an irrigation pioneer in northern Colorado and retained popularity. He returned to Fort Collins from 1931-1936 and wrote a newspaper column titled "Reviewing the Years." A column about his eff orts at Crawford and Edgemont was not found during this research. He died in Florida in 1944. Diverse ProducƟ on Boosted by the ponds' capacity, the Crawford hatchery had one of the most diverse missions in the nation. Early reports tell of its successes and failures in producing brook, rainbow, "black-spotted" (cutthroat) and "Loch Leven" (brown) trout, catfi sh, bream, sunfi sh, "black" (largemouth) bass, yellow perch and crappies. Of the 91 stations and substations listed in the system's 1933 annual report, only fi ve other hatcheries were producing a more diverse set of species than Crawford. Fort Robinson may have been one of the nation's best places to be during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Not only were the CCC's activities building excitement, but the fort also hosted the Army Equestrian Olympic Team as it prepared for the 1936 games in Berlin. (Equestrian for what was termed the "Nazi Olympics" later ended with suspicions of foul play, as the host Germans claimed an unprecedented and not since repeated sweep of all six gold medals.) The fort's role in producing horses and fi sh was symbiotic in at least one regard. Surplus from the fort's thousands of horses and mules provided a supply of meat that was converted to fi sh food. While other hatcheries across the nation were advertising to purchase horses to feed the fi sh, Crawford enjoyed a free supply of as many as a dozen horses per month. Documents indicate it was something of a trade for keeping the fort's streams and lakes stocked for the military personnel who liked to fi sh. In 1942, the hatchery reported receiving 30,000 pounds of horsemeat. Making fi sh food from animal products — sheep liver and beef hearts also were commonly used — was messy and labor intensive. In the Interior of hatch house at the Crawford National Fish Hatchery in 1983. NGPC LIBRARY

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