Valsetz's Gold Fish Pond

Are you wondering what in the world is a Gold Fish Pond doing with in Valsetz History or do you have a big smile on your face because you have your own knowledge of the Valsetz Gold Fish Pond.
I wrote about the fish aquarium in my last writing. What I did not tell you was that my wife and I are reminded of gold fish in Valsetz when viewing fish in an aquarium.
When I speak of Gold Fish I'm not talking about a small one inch fish. But as large as one foot plus.
As the story goes, the superintendent of the valsetz Mill (as many people today) had built a fish pond in the back of the home then stocked it with gold fish (which is carp)
In Valsetz in case you are not aware was touted as the wettest place in Oregon. To be the wettest place in Oregon you will have a lot of rain. After a lot of rain this fish pond had to collect water to a over flowing condition.
Not only was the fish pond over flowing but the man made lake not to far from the fish pond was also over flowing.
The lake flooded over so bad the pond and lake become one.
After the lake water receded the fish pond was left empty.
The Valsetz lake up into the sixty's was well know for the naive trout fishing, German Browns was one native trout that made you a fisherman if you was to bag a large one.
I became disenchanted with fishing in Valsetz in the mid sixty's due to someone had entered bass fish into the lake and had destroyed trout fishing in the lake.
As a freshman in high school I was caught skipping school by one German Brown Trout.
I was suckered in by a very nice day and our boat was closer to my house then the school. I just had that feeling it was my day to catch a old Brown Trout. Not really I just skipped school to go fishing.
I had spent most of the day paddling around the lake trolling, still fishing,and become bored from not catching any fish. But before I could go home I had to wait until school was out or mom would have knowned I had skipped school.
Then it happened this old Brown trout grabbed my baited hook and I spent what I thought must have been hours landing that big brown.
With out thinking I headed to shore grabbed Mr. Brown and headed to the company store (The only general store in Valsetz, it was company owned) where they would give my brown a place of honor on ice and show my name for catching that big brown.
I come out of the store beaming more than a full moon beam off the calmest of lake water. Then it hit me, crap it was only 2:00 pm and the date and time was on the information about Mr Brown's being my catch. I then started to brace myself for the evening. In trying to make myself believe my dad would not know for a few days then mabey it would be to late for punishment. I was very pleased with my self but unhappy as I was not able to share my catch with my family.
That evening when dad got home I knew he knew I skipped school that day
when he asked me how was school today. Dad had never before ask me how was school today. I did get to share the catching of Mr. Brown with my family.
One time when Dad, my brother, and I were out in the boat fishing in the Valsetz lake when from a distance we see this large fish jumping around and looked as large as a beaver.
I never seen my dad get so worked up and exited about a fish in all my life. I swear he grabbed the oars and made it to where this fish was before you could say bait my hook. This fish jumped as if it was coming into the boat and then disappeared. Dad took the boat straight to dock and rushed us home told mom get in the car and headed straight to Falls City's store that sold fishing gear. When dad came out he had a heavy duty pole, reel, line, and great big jigs and lures.
Then back to home we went. We knew just what dad had in mind to do.
By the time we got back home and had traveled 32 miles of crooked gravel road my mom, brother, and myself could not contain our-self's
any further and begin laughing out out. Dad started to get mad then he saw the comedy of what had happened. Dad took the fishing gear back to the store with out even trying to catch his dream fish. This is one fish that did get away.
Dad found out later the fish that was seen by us, was what was know as a Loch Leven trout a subspecies of the German Brown.
Back to the gold fish. The gold fish from the pond was now in the man made lake. The gold fish pond was a short distance from water around the mill. AS the mill water was a lot warmer then the lake water it was natural for the gold fish to wind up around the mill. The gold fish grew not only in size but in numbers. The gold fish were seen in the water around the mill. The mill now had it's own gold fish pond.
I as others remember seeing the gold fish when we went cat fishing at night around the mill, others have been said have seen gold fish in other parts of the valsetz lake.
I would just about bet there was no larger gold fish ponds than the Valsetz Lake was.