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Edward William Nelson of the Smithsonian Institute
wrote the first accounts of trout in the Rio del Presidio. Nelson and
Edward A. Goldman of the Smithsonian were researching birds in Durango, Mexico in l898 when Nelson
saw (but did not collect) trout in a mountain stream west of the city of
Durango. Nelson's field notes for the period are lost, but Goldman's notes
place them unequivocally in the Presidio watershed near the modern day city of
El Salto. For years ichthyologists have argued as to whether
Nelson's trout were native or whether they were introduced McCloud rainbows.
The area was remote for
the time, (some 60 miles west of Durango)
and
accessible only by trail, it seems likely that the trout
were native. Presidio trout also average 64.5
vertebrae in contrast to McCloud rainbows which average 63 vertebrae.
In l907, Walter Bishop, vice-consul of the United States to
Durango, shipped 5 specimens of Presidio trout to Nelson at
the Smithsonian. The specimens are since lost, but it
is likely that Bishop caught these trout himself and shipped
them at Nelson's request, Nelson having been asked about
Mexican trout by Barton Evermann in l906. Bishop's
son, also named Walter Bishop, told us in 2003 that his
father had frequently fished the area for trout in the first
part of the 20th century, and that his father was later the
manager of a large, forested tract in the Presidio and Baluarte watersheds for the El Salto Lumber Company.
If the area had been stocked with trout, Mr. Bishop would
have been the first to know. Mr. Bishop's son also
worked for the lumber company, and guided American Ralph G.
Miller to Presidio trout in the l940's. Miller's
collections remain the first extant specimens of trout from
the Presidio. |
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