Neosho National Fish Hatchery Manager Dave Hendrix is heading to Minneapolis, Minn., but not for vacation.

Instead, he is going there for work. Hendrix is going to the regional office of the Fish and Wildlife center to review proposals for the new visitor’s center at the Neosho National Fish Hatchery.

“I will be meeting with contractors and engineers, my supervisors, sitting around the table and we will evaluate each proposal and see which one is the best one that fits within the dollars that we have, and closest to the design that we had hoped for,” he said. “I am not for sure how long I will be up there for, maybe one day, two days or three days, I don’t know.”

The proposed center will be 9,500-square-feet and be located on the north side of the hatchery.
Plans call for a two-story visitor's center, with office space on the second floor and a library as well. Planned features for the visitor's center include an aquarium, a training room with a wet lab, a video-viewing equipment, a display of historical artifacts and a book and souvenir shop, which will be managed by the Friends of the Neosho National Fish Hatchery. 


“We are going to have a 70-some seat auditorium, wet labs so that we can do experiments with the kids and when they come,, we can do water quality and a classroom area, too, for the kids so that we can do experiments and stuff,” said Hendrix.

This is the third time that the hatchery had seeked bids for the new center. Both previous times, bids exceeded the project’s budget.

“We have about $2.8 million to work with,” Hendrix said. “This is our third time around. The difference this time, we used a different technique. We made the contracts aware of the dollars that we have to work with. And also showed them the design that we had hoped to go with. So they know that stuff up front.”

Hendrix said hopeful that this time will be the charm.

“I am very, very hopeful,” Hendrix said. “We have been waiting on this for a long time. We are hoping and praying that we can find a good proposal in this bunch, so we can move on this project and get it completed.”

If they agree on the proposal, the process moves on.

“Once we decide on that, then it has to be reviewed from the next level, signed off on,” said Hendrix. “I am hoping at least by the first week of September.”

The hatchery sees very sizeable visitors over the years and Hendrix is hopeful that with the new visitors center, that it will increase.

“With the new center, we are hoping that will increase that to more than 100,000 visitors,” Hendrix said.

Some of the current hatchery programs include raising and releasing rainbow trout, providing recovery efforts for the endangered native mussels, working with the endangered Ozark cavefish, helping to restore efforts for the pallid sturgeon and other fish. 



The hatchery is the oldest operating federal fish hatchery in the United States. It was established in 1888. 



The hatchery is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. For more information, contact the hatchery at 451-0554.