The U.S. Fish Commission began experimenting with ways to curtail the decline in American fish stocks by relocating fish around the country. Eastern shad went from New York to California and Pacific salmon were shipped from California to the East. While transplanting shad was successful, Pacific salmon never established a foothold in any state in which they were planted, including Missouri.
Those in charge at the time actually thought a spawning run to the Gulf of Mexico and back could be created by stocking salmon fry in, among other rivers the Missouri near Kansas City.
Federal officials quickly realized the folly of their attempt to relocate salmon. But in the McCloud River in Northern California, the river from which the salmon were taken, there lived another cold-water fish of interest: the rainbow trout.
LINK (via: The Kansas City Star)
